Fraudulent
by ZaneLoverFan88
Summary: "FRAUDULENT (adj.): characterised by, based on, or done by fraud; deceitful." Kai Smith is the new student in the prestigious Master Wu's Academy for Boys… Although there is one tinsy winsy issue, Kai –or should we say Nya- is a girl. (AU)(Jaya) (Rated T)
1. Chapter 1 - Welcome to the Academy

**Fraudulent  
** ZaneLoverFan88

 _"FRAUDULENT (adj.): characterised by, based on, or done by fraud; deceitful_." _Kai Smith is the new student in the prestigious Master Wu's Academy for Boys… Although there is one tinsy winsy issue, Kai –or should we say Nya- is a girl. (AU)(Jaya)_

 **.::.**

 **Hey everyone! I'm alive! Sorry I kind of vanished on you all for a whole year but I'm back; alive and well and with greatly improved writing skills… SO improved that reading some of my other OLDER stories consisted of red foreheads and a permanent cringe face. So I am to aiming to make this new story a WHOLE lot better.**

 ** _In addition:_ I'm not a huge fan of the movie or the recent seasons. I fell in love with the first few seasons of Ninjago so I'll be quite… I guess traditional. I don't mind spoilers but I don't know anything that happens after Skybound. Sorry. _ALSO_ , I gained inspiration for this story from Emmaline Andrew's book, 'The Academy' so check that book out!  
**

 ** _Rating_ : T for violence and abuse (Just to be safe).**

 ** _Disclaimers_ : I do not own Ninjago in anyway or make profit from this story. This is written solely for entertainment and enjoyment. **

**.::.**

 **Chapter 1  
Welcome to the Academy**

 **.:Nya:.**

The sun rose like any other day. The black sky gradually turned into dim grey. The illumination of stars got languidly lustreless. All the countless of stars in the ebony sky started to hide their brightness, slowly dissipating into nothingness. It didn't take long for the first orange hue to appear on the skyline. Soon, streaks of pink wandered to the end of the earth. Blazing orange set fire to the clouds. A soft purple simmered along the horizon. Soon, the sun levitated into the sky.

Sunrise.

To most people, the sunrise is a symbolic message. It's a new beginning, or the end of a dark era. It could even be the birth of something new.

For Nya? It was just another sunrise. Just another day.

The adolescent let out a soft sigh as she sat on the edge of the balcony, her legs dangling over the edge while her arms and chin rested on the rails, her amber eyes absentmindedly on the sunrise. The soft, salty breeze blew past, ruffling her short hair.

Usually, it would soothe her. The breeze. Breeze, to Nya, was freedom. But… what was freedom if she didn't have it anymore? What was freedom if it was stolen from her from over a decade ago?

It didn't take long for the orange sun to turn into a ball of blinding light, resulting in Nya turning from the scene and grudgingly make her way back to the dingy hotel room where the light from the sun filtered through the outdated curtains and illuminated the peeling wallpaper, casting long shadows along the wall. The old carpet had splotches of mould throughout, giving the room a foul smell… Not that Nya minded; she had got used to it over the last three days.

She immediately went to the tattered duffle bag that rested on top of the made bed. She pulled out the essentials she needed for the day – the worn out muscle suit she had stolen from a movie set, a pair of baggy jeans, loose hoodie, bandages and hair gel.

With all of this gathered in her arms, she made her way to the bathroom. She placed the stuff around the sink before finally looking at the mirror, where she saw a shell of the girl she used to be looking back at her. Nya's proud raven hair was chestnut brown and falling just near the bottom of her ears. Her tanned skinned from her old days in the sun had adopted this ashen tinge from her current days on the run. Her amber eyes looked dead above the dark bags. Her once healthy and full face lost all innocence and became slightly shallow… which didn't bother the girl too much anymore. It just made her face shape look a little more like Kai's.

The mere thought of her brother's name caused a twinge of pain to flash within Nya's chest. Memories slowly simmered from the back of Nya's mind to the front, but, she firmly pushed it away as she tore her eyes from the mirror and stripped out of her clothes.

She immediately set herself to the daily routine. Bind the chest. Put on the worn out muscle suit. Dress in the slightly baggy clothes. Style her hair into the Kai's hairstyle.

Nya looked at the mirror again, feeling worse than she did moments ago. Staring back at her, in the reflection, was Kai… More like a sad and beaten down version of her brother. The two had the same nose, perky and long. They had the same almond shaped eyes, both also amber coloured. They even had the same broad and straight forehead. With the addition of Nya's slight loss of weight and baby fat, her cheeks held more resemblance to Kai's cheeks.

The muscle suit, she had stolen, used to just be about Kai's size – capturing his shoulder width and upper body perfectly but over the last few months, it just kept getting thinner and thinner from the constant wear. Although it made her seem slightly muscular but also slightly scrawny, it did hide Nya's slightly feminine shoulders and curves effectively – eliminating all suspects that she could potentially be a girl disguised as a boy.

Her slightly baggy clothes used to be Kai's clothes. They were a bit big since he was taller than her but it was that and the bags under her eyes that just made her seem like a very sad version of him. Then again, it perfectly matched her demeanour.

She decided it would have to do. As long as she didn't get recognised by her uncle and potentially fool a school full of boys, she would endure through it.

 **.::.**

After awkwardly standing in the small waiting room after the receptionist left her, Nya's feet cautiously walked across the blue carpeted floor and to one of the monotonous grey waiting chairs that pedantically aligned along the bare beige walls of the room. Nya sat on the edge of the chair. Ever since she had been on the run, she had always been on alert – never allowing herself to relax; especially not in public.

Her calloused hands interlocked with each other on top of her knees with the intention to calm them as soon as they had started to bounce with nervous energy. Nya's amber eyes scanned the room, taking note of the light bulb hanging from the ceiling that bathed the windowless room with an ivory yellow light. Then, her eyes landed on the discoloured water dispenser placed in the corner of the room, next to either an artificial or live plant, full of faux, olive green leaves.

Soon, she saw the small clock that hung above the principal's office. Nya scrutinised at the second hand, which seemed to linger an extra minute at very passing second. The girl immediately took her gaze off the clock, silently vowing to not look at it once more until absolutely necessary. So, she directed her attention elsewhere – that elsewhere being the pocket of her hoodie.

Nya's eyes looked at the red fabric and how it shifted when she reached her hand into the pocket and pulled out the familiar feeling of the two tattered photos. Nya closed her eyes for a few seconds, inhaling and exhaling slowly before opening them to look at the first photo.

It was a family portrait, dating back ten years ago. Nya looked at the happy photo. Her parents were standing in the background, smiles on their faces and wrinkles at the ends of their amber and blue eyes as they looked to the camera. Her father's messy hair was something Kai definitely inherited, in which, the boy was found in Ray's arms.

Kai had a radiating smile on his face. His lips were parted to show his teeth while his amber eyes glimmered with a mischief he always had as a young child. His hair, although not notoriously spiky yet, was a mess like their father's. He was only eight in this photo, the hair gel came into action possibly four years after this photo was taken.

Kai was a near replica of Ray; but, if there was something that Kai inherited from their mother, it was the nose. Other than that, Maya was a beautiful woman. Long, wavy, dark brown hair that ended past her shoulders, blue eyes that showed tender love for her family and her renowned high cheekbones. There, in her arms, was a six-year-old Nya.

The girl's face was full of awe, amber eyes wide and mouth formed in a perfect 'O' with small hands that hadn't practiced blacksmithing yet, reaching for the camera. Unlike Nya's current hair, her hair used to be raven black, inherited from her father. It fell in a bob cut with a fringe brushing the top of her brows.

Nya desperately missed her family. It was back when everything was happy. Although this picture does remind Nya of the happy times they had, it also made her remember their permanent absence from her life.

Nya debated whether or not she wanted to see the second photo, knowing that if she did, she would just feel too depressed to deal with anything.

"Stuff it…" Nya muttered as she brought the other photo forward.

Her eyes observed the photo. Unlike the other one where it was just a blank background, this one was right in front of the Four Weapons store in Ignacia, and this photo wasn't ten years ago. It was last year. Kai was no longer eight years old. In this photo, he was seventeen while Nya was fifteen. Her brother's hair was famously styled into his spikes, the same large smile of his face while his amber eyes crinkled as they stared at the camera.

Nya's raven hair was a lot longer this time. It was at her shoulders but fell straight instead of waves like her mother's hair did. Her face was a lot fuller, there was not a slightest trace of sleep deprive from underneath her eyes, and, there was a smile on her lips – a small thing that hadn't been present on her face since she had started to run.

Nya was actually on Kai's back, her arms over his shoulders and interlocking in front of his chest while his arms had grabbed underneath her legs to keep her propped up-

"Mr. Smith."

Nya's head perked up after quickly stuffing the photos into her pocket and she saw the headmaster, Master Wu, standing at the door. The man was quite old – maybe in his sixties. He had this oddly, silky and soft looking white beard and moustache that reached to the bottom of his stomach. His hazel eyes held wisdom but this tender softness as well.

He wore an elegant yet simple white kimono with a black sash around his hips. There was a red lotus emblem on the right breast of his kimono as well. To accompany his look, he also had a bamboo staff that was slightly taller than him and a straw hat… why was he wearing a hat indoor, Nya would never know.

However, she stood up and followed the headmaster into the office. In the centre of the room, there was a thick mahogany desk with chairs on either sides. Of course, Master Wu took the furthest chair on the other side of the desk while Nya sat in the closest one.

"So, Mr. Smith, I'm honoured to have you here today," Wu noted. "I looked through your files and the Specialised Admission Test- in which I must congratulate on your full marks. That test isn't made to be easy, hence why I had decided to extend a full scholarship towards you."

"For which I must thank you for, Master Wu," Nya replied, immediately adopting her voice to be lower and in a similar tone Kai would speak with.

"However, as your intelligence certainly surpasses our standards, you must still also be able to keep up with our martial arts program – after all, this academy is prestigious for its martial arts."

"Of course. I plan to train hard for it," Nya assured.

After all, she grew up in a blacksmith shop with samurai weapons. Although swordsmanship and the martials arts were two different things, Nya was sure she wouldn't be too greatly disadvantaged in her grade… grade of boys. Okay, so she would lack the strength but she would be able to have the speed and agility… right? Unless martial arts happened to be a much faster form of fight compared to swordsmanship.

"In which I don't doubt," Master Wu commented with a small nod of his head but Nya could help but stare at his beard which moved with the nod… almost like snakes. "But you must understand, failure to meet with this expectation will immediately result in the withdrawal your scholarship here."

"I understand," Nya confirmed.

She knew she would have to train hard; her intelligence wouldn't be enough. She needed this school, for safety and to keep a low-profile from her uncle. She disguised as Kai because she knew her uncle would never look for Kai, just for her and being at an all-boys' school for something that wasn't focus on swordsmanship or specific Samurai training would really direct her uncle's search elsewhere.

"Good. Now that we got that out of the way, let's move onto your schedule, classes, your dorm and the expectations."

 **.::.**

Intelligence was like underwear. It was important that you have it, but not necessary that you show it off. Nya was already planning not to draw attention to herself. The last thing she needed was to be recognised by every boy for being so educated in science, maths and engineering. But she was already planning to not join any clubs or join competitions, so her intelligence wasn't going to be an issue.

As for the martial arts training, Nya had played rough with the boys and sparred with her brother. Sure it wasn't proper martial arts and it's completely different from swordsmanship – but like she had mentioned before, she shouldn't be at a great disadvantage. If she was determined and dedicated enough, she would be fine. All she needed was to pass.

She wasn't worried about how to act like a boy. As a young child, Nya never really played with the other girls in Ignacia. All they wanted to do was play dolls and play dress up. Her? She just wanted to play with her brother and the boys. She wanted to be a warrior in their role-playing games of conquering dragons or the old Serpentine Generals from the tales their parents would tell them. As she grew older, the girls became worse. They wanted to talk about boys, fashion trends and makeup. Nya? She wanted to talk about sports or even weapons and stuff relating to samurais.

So, she knew how to act like a boy. She knew how to interact with them but she also had been acting like Kai whenever she was in public. As much as her older brother was such a sweet, teasing and protective older brother, he would be quite a hot-head. Although, the one thing Nya couldn't do was Kai's tendency to take action before thinking things through. Nya could never do that. All it could take was one mistake before everything comes crashing down.

What she also couldn't do was Kai's big ego and constant flirtations with girls. Yeah, Nya wasn't going to do that. But, no one here knew Kai so she knew she didn't have to be like him in very way. But, she did have his stubbornness – apparently, it was a Smith thing.

No, the one thing Nya was worried about was her roommate. She was lucky enough each dorm only fit up to two boys so that made things easier but… how was she going to do this? Obviously, she probably had to wear the muscle suit at all times. The thought of doing that was a little disgusting to Nya but maybe she may gain enough muscle and strength to adapt a more masculine looking body that she would no longer need the muscle suit. Because the last time she wore that thing for three days straight, she got a terrible outbreak of rashes and a couple bacterial skin infections. Yeah, that was pretty gross. Washing the muscle suit was a pain since it took so long to dry and the more you wash it, the more worn out it became.

Nya wondered that if she manages to become close with this boy, maybe she could entrust him with her secret- no. That could jeopardise everything. No. This had to be an absolute secret.

The girl took a deep breath as she looked to the mahogany door that stood in front of her. Although the academy was about a decade old, they must had gone through recent renovations since there was a fresh coat of varnish on the door, giving it a warm tone and a glossy sheen. The door handle must have been replaced as well because the brass doorhandle didn't have any rust or discolouring. It just reflected her reflection clearly – not showing Nya but Kai.

 _Don't worry, Nya. You already look like a boy. You even managed to fool the Headmaster, I'm sure you can fool your stupid roommate as well._

With this confident thought in her head, Nya turned the doorknob quickly and stepped in the room but she stopped dead in her tracks.

A tall boy –her age, of course- looked at her with a shocked expression, probably mirroring hers. His cooper brown hair was damp while his grey-blue eyes looked surprised… before they had this certain sparkle in them. It was like storm clouds right before lightning hit. But, having no control over her eyes, they looked at his bare and toned chest and immediately, she felt her cheeks burn up. He was clearly in the middle of changing. But -thank goodness- he already had a pair of dark blue jeans on.

It wasn't like Nya hadn't seen a bare chest before. She had seen her brother's and her father's shirtless chests whenever it was too hot in the shop near the furnaces. They were family, of course. She had also seen the bare chest of the boys back in Ignacia. They would play soccer shirtless if it was too hot. But, their chests could never compare to her roommate's.

"Are you going to continue gawking? I mean I know I'm hot and all, but I'm not into guys," her roommate teased, a humour dancing in his eyes.

"S-Sor- Excuse me, gawking?" Nya was about to blurt sorry before catching herself. Guys didn't do that. No. Especially not Kai. "As if I would gawk over you."

"Yeah, sure," he boy huffed before chuckling. "So, newbie, gonna come in or are you going to stay there all day long? I mean you can if you want."

Nya slightly scowled. Sure, she should be thrilled that her roommate wasn't gay – that would be so awkward! And she should also be thrilled at the fact that he wasn't some guy who was into drugs or even just one of those depressed quiet boys. Hot-heads she could deal with – after all, she had her brother. But she couldn't help but feel annoyed that this boy was already teasing her.

"Whatever," Nya muttered, walking in and immediately walking over to the right side of the room which was completely plain – compared to her roommate's side which was adorned in mostly blue decorations but also it had little inventions and contraptions.

Huh, maybe she and this boy might get along.

Nya quickly shook her head, mentally reminding herself to not get too attached. Being attached meant that there was a higher chance of a slip-up of her true identity.

"So, do I get a name or do I have you call you Gawker?"

"Can I call you Zaptrap then?" Nya countered, turning to face the boy with her arms crossed.

Yes, maybe she can just be the hot-headed and distant teen. That way, no friends and no revelation of her identity.

"Did you wake up on the wrong side of bed or something?" Her roommate asked, his back to her as he shrugged on a t-shirt. "I'm Jay Walker. Now, can I get your name?"

"… I'm Kai. Kai Smith."

 **What do you all think? I know it's a little bit slow at the moment but I promise the pace will pick up. And I want to give a big shout out to my Turtleneck Sweater Bunch 3.0! They inspired me to write again. But thank you for reading and I hoped you all enjoyed it. Let me know your thoughts in the comments/reviews and any suggestions I should take into consideration!**

 **Until next time! Xoxo – ZaneLoverFan88**


	2. Chapter 2 - Bilaterally Sides

**Chapter 2  
Bilaterally Sides**

 **.:Jay:.**

Jay had to admit, he was very surprised with the roommate he got. All the previous ones were often quite… well… boring. One didn't talk at all. Another was far too serious. Another was a nervous wreck! It didn't take Jay long to get rid of them – after all, it was actually a guilty pleasure of his trying to annoy his roommate and get them to leave the academy. It wasn't that Jay was mean or anything, it was just fun. People need to take a joke sometimes. Not only that, he and Cole (that Dirt Clog) had this competition going on since they had enrolled in the academy.

Kai was very interesting. The boy seemed to have a slight build but he just looked so scrawny in his loose clothes. He was a little short – well, not too short. Jay was short but this boy was maybe an inch or two shorter than him. Kai may be short but Jay was pretty sure his temper was a lot bigger than him. It sort of fit with his growly yet high voice. The boy also looked extremely nervous and edgy.

"So… How's the new kid?"

Jay looked to his side to see a blond boy climbing into the seat next to him at the table Jay was sitting at. Lloyd was the headmaster's nephew – which made it a huge bonus to Jay that Lloyd was his best friend and not Dirt Clog's friend. But Jay did genuinely enjoy the boy's company – it wasn't like he was using the nephew of his headmaster just to get benefits. No. Lloyd had a pretty good sense of humour. The kid could be an idiot at times but he knew when to be serious.

"Well, he's better than the last few."

"Still going to get rid of him?"

"May as well try," Jay shrugged as he pushed his food around his plate with his fork. "He's far too edgy. Hot-headed. Didn't seem to be happy with my jokes."

"When you said 'may as well try', does that mean the major pranks or the minor ones?"

"Let's just go minor first. If he's not gone yet, go onto major. If he still stays, I think he could be a good addition to the team."

"If Cole doesn't get him first," Lloyd reminded.

"He's my roommate. Of course he belongs to me," Jay scoffed.

"Fine, fine. Just where exactly is he?" Lloyd asked before looking over his own shoulder, looking for the new kid amongst the dining hall where every other student was eating.

"No, he's behind me. Six tables back. Alone."

" _Him_?"

"What, you know him?"

"No. He just… looks scrawny- er, Jay? I think we have to skip the pranks and if you want to recruit him," Lloyd suddenly said, voice turning serious.

"Ummm… Why?" Jay questioned, seeing his friend's green eyes focused over Jay's shoulder.

"Because Cole is approaching the newbie right now."

 _"What?!"_

 **.:Nya:.**

Was every boy in an all-boys private school hot and cute? As much as Jay did annoy her a bit with his teasing, it was hard to deny that the boy was cute. And now, two hot guys just sat at the table she intended to sit at _alone!_

To Nya, they represented Ying and Yang. One of them was tall, paled skin and blond hair that… creepily stood up very straight. The only way he could have possibly achieved that was putting hair gel in his hair and combing it upwards and let the hair dry that way because not a single hair strand was out of place. His soft and kind eyes were blue; not the ordinary sky blue, or the colour of the paint flaking off of the old shed in the back of the field, or even the little flowers that spring up by the side of the road. His eyes were blue like ice – crystal clear blue. Looking into his eyes, you could see details you could only see on icicles with a pattern of an exquisite snowflake. His eyes were that kind of blue. Even though they reminded her mostly of snow and ice and the coldness, they held warmth within them.

Nya had to admit, she was mesmerised. She had never seen eyes so pale before. But then there was the other boy. Unlike this pale one who was tall with a leaner muscle build, this one was like a body builder. Although he was shorter than his friend, he had a massive build with his muscle definition easily seen along his neck and collarbone the Academy uniform exposed. He had tousled black hair, which was thick and lustrous. He also had strong arched brows and eyelashes so thick, it could be illegal. His angular jawline was free and smooth of any blemish and hair. His tanned skin made him look devilishly handsome.

"Can I help you two?" Nya asked, keeping her voice low and filled it with irritation; maybe that way, the two would leave her alone.

"You're the new kid, right? I'm Cole," the dark-haired boy introduced with a charming smile on his lips. "And this is Zane."

The boy didn't say much. Just a simple raise of his hand accompanied with a small wave and smile.

"I'm Kai," Nya muttered before looking back down at her food. Maybe it would give them the message that she didn't want to talk.

"We both understand you're new so we thought we would show you around for your classes."

"I can read a map by myself, thank you very much," Nya retorted, emitting a laugh from Cole.

"I don't doubt it. But, there are some boys here who loves to play pranks on others – especially on newbies. We just don't want you to fall into the wrong hands."

"And how do I know if this isn't a prank?" Nya skeptically asked, raising a brow at Cole.

"It's usually Jay Walker and Lloyd Garmadon who pranks the newbies," Cole simply said with a shrug of his shoulders before throwing a thumb over his shoulder.

"Ummm…"

"Jay Walker. I heard he's your roommate."

"It's not that I don't know them. They're not at that table."

She watched with amusement as Cole and Zane looked over their shoulders, eyes widening to see that the two boys they tried dobbing in weren't there.

"Nope, we're here."

Nya nearly jumped a foot in the air when she heard this new voice directly behind her. She looked over her shoulder in a panic to see Jay standing behind her and the boy Cole called Lloyd.

And again, Lloyd was another cute boy.

His eyes were the green of fresh dew glinting in the sunlight off a leaf of green emerald. His lips were pale and thin and his nose slender and rounded. He had a prominent jaw that curved gracefully around and blonde hair that fell in waves to his ears with a massive bang that crossed over his forehead.

"And please, you guys are prankers too. Don't give us all the credit," Jay teased as he and Lloyd on either side of Nya, but… this time, she heard an underlining cold tone to his voice.

"Hey, we're sticking up for the newbie. I don't terrorise the new kids."

"Terrorise? _Terrorise?"_ Jay scoffed. "As least I don't stick boys' heads in the toilet."

"I-I did not-!"

"Cole only did that once," Zane quipped, letting Nya hear his somewhat monotonous voice for the first time.

"Still!" Jay cried out.

"And what about the time that _both_ of you put chilli in Dareth's soup that he actually had to go to the hospital?" Lloyd countered. "You two were so lucky that my uncle sees 'potential' in both of you otherwise both of you would be expelled!"

"I think suspended is more like it," Cole only grinned. "But at least we're fair. We didn't prank Dareth after that. You two, on the other hand, keep pranking the same people."

How the heck did Nya get involved in this? She wanted to get out but she had Jay and Lloyd on either side of her, and Cole and Zane in front of her. So even if she tried sneaking away, they would both easily see her doing so.

"Harmless pranks!" Jay defended.

"Trust me, when they get like this, they won't even notice that you're slipping away – apart from Zane," said a new voice, making Nya flinched but she looked over her shoulder to finally see someone who wasn't hot or cute.

 _At long last._

"What are you waiting for? Come on."

So, without any hesitation, Nya grabbed her tray and slipped out. To her utter surprise, Cole, Jay and Lloyd paid no attention – how could they not? She was literally right in their vision! She saw Zane's eyes on her but he didn't say anything. Good.

Nya followed the boy in front of her. He was quite short. Same height as her, a little bit on the chubby side and he had a mop of brown hair. She couldn't exactly get a closer look on his face since his back was turned to her. Soon, he sat at another table, making Nya sit opposite him.

"I'm Dareth."

"Oh, I'm Kai," Nya immediately responded before hesitantly shaking the man's outstretched hand before looking over her shoulder to see Jay and Cole standing up, leaning over the table and directly into each other's face, glaring. Any closer and they would kiss. "Do they… always fight?"

"Ooh yeah," Dareth laughed. "I haven't seen them this riled up though. Must be you."

"W-What?" Nya stuttered, her voice slipping back into her normal one but fortunately, Dareth paid no attention.

"Wait… You're the newbie, aren't you? You're not that new kid from four months back?"

"Yeah, I'm the newbie."

"Wow. Okay then. I had never seen Jay and Cole fight so quickly over a newbie."

"Fight over for what?" Nya asked, frowning with her brows furrowing.

 _Maybe this school isn't as… prestigious as it claims to be. Boys fighting over newbies? Just what the heck?_

"So you are aware that this school is known for the martial arts and all?"

"… Yes?" Nya answered slowly as she took another look at Dareth.

 _Yeah, he doesn't seem like someone who does well with the martial arts side of this school._

"Okay, so as you know, tuition fees at this school is a little pricey so, Master Wu offers this kind of tournament at the end of school year where teams of four compete to win. Whichever team wins, the whole team gets a scholarship for the next year."

"And let me guess," Nya sighed, "Jay, Lloyd, Cole and Zane happen to be the top four students?"

"Yup, you got it right," Dareth grinned. "But as you probably realise, they're not on the same team. It's Lloyd and Jay, then Cole and Zane. However, both boys decide to make it fair that when they fill up their teams, they recruit a newbie for each tournament so the other competing teams can get a fair shot as well. I just think they're more keen on beating the other."

 _Recruit a newbie so the other teams could get a fair shot. Huh, so they aren't exactly cruel-hearted pranksters._

"But… They both want me?" Nya skeptically asked.

"Well, normally they both tend to wait a couple months, see if the newbie is any good. If they are, then they recruit them."

"So… It's a sparring tournament?"

"No. Master Wu said something along the lines of 'a great fighter isn't just his fists'… or was it kicks? I dunno, it's end with it's got to do with mind and heart. Master Wu can be wise but he can be equally weird so there's an intelligence round… creativity round and some other rounds I can't think of on a low stomach," Dareth shrugged before looking to her tray, his already empty. "You're gonna eat that?"

"No."

"Cool, I'm taking it… But I also got one more question."

"Ummm… Yeah?"

"Are you gay?" Dareth asked with a hopeful look on his face.

Upon this, Nya wished the earth would open up and swallow her whole.

 **.:Jay:.**

Jay resisted the temptation to sleep. It was hard, considering that the sheets the academy provided were silky and soft. The whole bed was like a billowing cloud, thick and irresistibly soft. Sleep tried calling out to him but Jay knew he had pressing matters to think about, such as the tournament that was to come in five months.

He and Lloyd needed, _desperately needed,_ another two boys to join their ranks. But, if they verbally voiced this out, the two would be drowning in requests from other students. Of course everyone wanted to be on his team, or on Cole's team. However, trying to replace Ash (who had graduated the previous year) would be hard. Then, there was the fact that he had to have a newbie on his team.

After Kai had magically disappeared during their argument and after two hours of searching fruitlessly for him, Jay hoped that Kai was in their room but, he wasn't. It was only Sunday so it wasn't like the boy had any classes or training to do. Plus, it was only his first day so it wasn't like he have some other commitments.

Jay thought about it hard and realised it was probably best to recruit Kai into his team. Who knew when the next newbie would be coming within the next five months? Plus, it wouldn't be enough time to train them _if_ they happened to be better than Kai who did appear to be better than the last few newbies. Of course, Cole recognised that too and want him.

 _Ugh, just how much more does that dirt lover want to take from me?_

Kai already belonged to him. He was Jay's freaking roommate for crying out loud! Did Cole honestly want a team member who was sharing the same room as his enemy? Okay, maybe the term enemy wasn't the right word – rival. Yes, that was it.

Jay had hoped to talk to Kai and recruit him straight away. Normally, he would actually wait after a few pranks to see if the newbie had what it takes. If yes, he and Lloyd would train him extra before and after classes to prepare for the tournament. If not, Jay would try to get rid of them. Truth be told, it wasn't just to have some fun – it was to eliminate the possible candidates Cole could choose for his own team.

However, Kai wasn't here, just like how he wasn't in any other part of the academy. Just how did that dude seriously disappear? Either way, if Kai was as stealthy as he seemed, he would be great for the stealth challenges in the tournament. Last year, they didn't do any, which meant that it would definitely be in this year's tournament.

Well… thinking about it now, Kai would be a great addition to the team if Cole doesn't snatch him up. The guy already had Zane and Griffin Turner on his side. If he had Kai on his side as well, he would definitely win this year. Jay couldn't have that happen. Jay could always keep the newbie from last year – he wasn't that bad either. Lloyd insisted that they added him last year since he knew Brad when he was younger. Apparently Brad had been doing much better in training this year – maybe they could have him again…

Although, Jay did try to avoid using the same newbie again since their skills wouldn't be high enough for the next year. Having a newbie and a semi-newbie wasn't really a good strategy at winning but maybe Brad could be an exception this year-

Jay bolted upwards when he heard the door open and in came Kai.

"There you are!" Jay exclaimed. "I've been looking for you."

"Yeah, you really looked like you were looking for me," Kai dryly retorted as his titled his head towards Jay's bed.

"Hey, it's called a break," Jay quickly said as he got up. "We need to talk."

"If it's about the tournament thing, I don't want in."

" _What?!"_ Jay gasped.

 _No, no, no! I need him! He doesn't want in?! Doesn't he want the scholarship?!_

"I'm not into that kind of thing."

"B-But… But haven't you heard of the reward at the end?"

"The scholarship? I'm already on a full scholarship. I don't need another."

 _What?! Kai is on a scholarship already?! For what?! Ah! This isn't good! This is not good!_

"But you don't have to take the scholarship for yourself. You could give it away to someone else," Jay gushed.

"Someone else can do that."

"Lloyd and I help to train whoever joins our team," Jay next said, trying to come up with any way to make Kai agree. "You are aware that you lose your scholarship if you can't keep up with the intelligence or physical expectations? And I'm sure you're here on an academic scholarship, so you could also use the extra help on the-"

"I'm sure I'll be fine," Kai muttered as he turned his back to Jay and went to unpack his bag.

 _Oh no, what am I going to do?_

 **.::.**

Later that night, Jay found himself sitting in Lloyd's dorm, recounting the miniscule encounter he had with his roommate. Kai not wanting to join had completely stressed him out because who knew? Maybe Cole would find a way to convince him and Jay couldn't have that at all!

"So… I guess that means Kai is out?"

"We can't just give up," Jay groaned. "Cole won't and if he gets Kai, he would never let me live it down since Kai is my freaking roommate!"

"Who knows, maybe Kai just has trust issues," Lloyd shrugged. "You said he's quite edgy, right? Maybe give him a day or two, be the nice roommate and maybe he'll reconsider it… But here I was hoping to prank him."

"No pranking. I can't risk him possibly going onto Cole's team."

"What if he just doesn't want to do it? I mean there's quite a number of students that don't participate in the tournament."

"Then we're still two short and the other newbies this year aren't that great."

"We don't even know if Kai is great!"

"Kai is on a full scholarship."

"He's what?!"

"Yeah, for his academic intelligence," Jay muttered as his feet started to pace on Lloyd's faded green carpet. The poor thing was so thin from whenever Jay would come over to pace on it. "I have hope he's not that hopeless in martial arts."

"Did you try telling him that we always train our newbies? This way, this will ensure he won't lose the scholarship?"

"Nah, he didn't even care."

"He didn't care? Dude, stop pacing. It's honestly starting to annoy me," Lloyd huffed, resulting Jay to sigh and collapse into a nearby arm chair. "Look, if he seems to be failing during sunrise exercise tomorrow, then we offer our help in exchange for his. Fair deal."

"And he's actually good enough on his own and doesn't accept our help or even help us?"

"Then we just have to move on."

"Ugh, exams should be making me stressed, not this!"

 **Wow, the reception on the first chapter is incredible! Thank you to everyone who gave me a warm welcome, it's great to be back. I'm actually quite surprised that some of you remember me (especially after my year-long absence). Massive thanks to the following for reviewing, favourite and following: Natalie Singe, AuroraRain18, Just Someone Not Important, StreetTT, MasterofCupcakes, CatGirl.02, Text1412, Thor13542, GwenBrightly, LiaLia15, ThePowerOfOats, the two guest reviewers and all my silent readers!**

 **Once again, I appreciate any forms of feedback – even if it's harsh! It's honestly the best way to learn and improve… well, it is to me. You could either PM me or just leave a comment. Thanks for reading and I'll see you all soon! Xoxo – ZaneLoverFan88.**


	3. Chapter 3 - Discommodity

**Chapter 3  
Discommodity**

 **.:Nya:.**

 _A small way east of Ignacia, Nya sat by the river bed that wove through the forest. The water was cool and refreshing, for it had slipped twinkling down from the mountains that surrounded her small town. The water was lined with trees: pine, birch, redwood; fresh and green with every spring._

 _The girl softly inhaled the air, thick with late spring's presence. The sky had almost vanished completely, only a few fragments of blue remain. The air is rich with the fragrance of leaves and moisture. Even after the passing rain, the soil remained wet, slowly releasing a milky white condensation from the evening chill. Despite this, the breeze had a pleasant coolness. The sound of running water in the river had a relaxing, hypnotic quality._

 _"You okay?"_

 _Nya turned her head over her shoulder to see her brother a few steps back, dressed warmly in thick clothes._

 _"… You expect me to be?" Nya asked in a small voice before turning her head forward, letting her eyes follow a leaf that was captured in the river's current._

 _However, her ears heard the soft crunches of the leaves as they were crushed by Kai's boots which were walking towards her. Soon, he sat next to her before wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her close to him. His warm body warmth instantly radiated off him waves, making Nya heave a small sigh._

 _"I'm sorry… I don't mean to be distant."_

 _"It's okay, I've been distant as well." She heard Kai quietly admit._

 _"It's just that... It's just hard to accept that they're dead."_

 _Her words weren't met with a response from Kai, knowing the death of their parents were weighing heavily on both of their shoulders._

 _Death wasn't kind. In fact, Nya hated it with a passion. It snatched where it could, taking people who hadn't lived their lives to its fullest or just far too good to meet death. It took her parents – two people who had done nothing to deserve it. It took away the two people who always strived Nya to go for her dreams, who supported her throughout anything, who loved her no matter how many stupid mistakes she had made. Now, they were gone._

 _"I know…" Kai finally said after a minute of silence, his voice thick with sadness. "I'm still having a hard time believing it but… Mum and Dad wouldn't want us to be grieving over them forever. They would want us to try and move on and be happy."_

 _"You're right… It's just too hard," Nya whispered, feeling her eyes pricking with tears as she leaned on her brother even more. His arm then tightened around her shoulders._

 _"I never said it'll be easy or quick," Kai sighed. "… What are you thinking about now?"_

 _"… Their dead bodies in the casket," Nya confessed._

 _Although her eyes were firmly watching leaves flow down the river, in her mind, she could only see her parents' dead bodies in the caskets before the funeral. She could vividly remember their ash and pale looking skin. The injuries that they had obtained from the car accident. Their colourless lips that didn't smile._

 _"You shouldn't be thinking about that."_

 _"It's hard not to."_

 _"You're only going to make yourself more upset."_

 _"I'm already in grief, Kai. Just let me wallow in my own sadness," Nya muttered, trying to pull herself away from her brother's side but his arm remained firm around her shoulder._

 _"Nya, you can't keep remembering them by how we saw them last. You should remember them when they were at their happiest. It's not easy, even I'm struggling with it, but we can't let one image define them forever. They had good lives. They had good memories with us like we have with them. They would never want you to forget those cherished memories."_

 _"… When did you become so wise?" Nya tearily asked as he looked to Kai who only stared back down with her with a tender softness in his eyes._

 _"Someone has to between the two of us," he answered with a slight tease, making the smallest of smiles appear on her lips._

 _Despite Kai being a hot-headed jerk, impatient or impulsively stubborn, Nya knew that deep down, her brother was a marshmallow. He could be sappy when he wanted to. He could even be sweet and kind. Of course, he only showed this around her, making Nya love her brother even more._

 _"Thanks… For always being here for me."_

 _"Of course, otherwise who knows where you would end up-?"_

"Kai, come on. Get up."

Nya gasped as she woke up from her dream, her whole body jolting to feel a hand on her.

"Whoa, calm down. It's only me."

The girl quickly wiped the sleep from her eyes which soon focused on her roommate's blurry figure. _Huh?_

"Why are you waking me up so early?" Nya couldn't help but grumble lowly before trying to fight back a yawn but miserably failing.

"I looked at your schedule. You're in my sunrise exercise group."

"In your what?"

"Sunrise exercise. Training. You know, martial arts?" Jay reminded before groaning. "Just get out of bed. Master Garmadon isn't merciful on those who are late."

"Fine," Nya huffed as she threw the blankets off her body.

She looked over to Jay who was already dressed in the standard training uniform that is given to the students. So, she went to her duffle bag (ignoring her sore shoulders) and grabbed out a grey kimono-styled training uniform, her hair gel and went straight for the bathroom.

When Nya caught a glimpse of herself in mirror, she noticed that the bags under her eyes were more pronounced. Then again, her stupid roommate woke her up before the crack of dawn. Either way, she sighed as she stripped out of her pyjamas.

Each upper body muscle was aching. Sleeping in the muscle suit wasn't comfortable. Sure it was only foam padding but Nya had gotten used to sleeping with her bare shoulders. Even her chest was aching from being bound up for so long. Nevertheless, she forced herself to dress into the training uniform and do up her hair in Kai's signature style.

"Kai, hurry up!"

"Just go without me. I didn't ask you to stay back," Nya couldn't help but snapped. It wasn't like she could help it. Jay woke her up from one of the more pleasant dreams of her brother.

"I don't want you to get lost."

"I won't."

"… Alright then," Jay called out, followed by the sound of the front door closing.

Nya sighed as her hands gripped the porcelain of the sink and she leaned over the sink, gritting her teeth.

 _Come on, Nya. Get a grip of yourself. Think happy thoughts, like Kai had said. Think good memories, not the bad. Let's start the first day of school on a good note._

 _… Pfft, easier said than done._

 **.::.**

After the sunrise exercise, everyone went to breakfast. Nya? She went straight for her room.

The girl winched as she peeled the sweaty uniform from her skin. She then then pulled off the worn out suit. Although it does act as a protective padding, Nya's eyes looked into the mirror to see purple bruises marring her skin. Against the slight paleness of her skin, they looked grotesque.

Kenjutsu (Samurai swordsmanship) and martial arts were definitely not the same thing. When her father taught her how to fight with a sword, she was always told to be heavy on her feet. Samurais apply their strength through their swords; since she was a girl, she won't have the same strength – she would be the weaker opponent but the one way to stand her ground was to make sure she had strong foot work and base.

Nope. Martial arts were completely different. In fact, Nya was pretty sure she was learning ninjutsu! It was so fast paced and she had to be completely light on her feet – something that is the complete opposite to what she had learned!

Master Garmadon had spent the entire two and a half hours of the morning training session training her. He watched her like a hawk and he never left her side. She was so paranoid the whole time – she never had someone watch her every move like that. The thought of Master Garmadon possibly finding out her true identity crossed her mind many times but, he never said anything.

He mainly went with her was self-defence – in other words, being able to effectively block; hence, all the bruises she had obtained. For someone as old as him, he moved fast and he hit hard. Nya had tried to move her arms into a block but sometimes she would be too late and he punched her in the chest – not the breast! Lucky for that.

Nya undid the bindings from across her chest and immediately turned on the water to the shower to be nice and hot. As the water heated up, she hung up the muscle suit so it could air out. Then, she stepped into the shower, welcoming the pebbles of warm water caressing her skin. Water always made her feel peaceful. It helped her mind to fade into dullness and turn everything into a foggy illusion. The sensation of the water falling onto her skin in steamy rivulets soothed her.

It took a few minutes before Nya finally went to wash her, washing away the sweat accumulated from training whilst massaging her aching muscles. She even washed out her hair. Once she was all done, she dreaded putting on the bindings and the muscle suit. But, she wanted to do this- no, she _had_ to do this.

"Let's get this over and done with…"

 **.::.**

Nya went through the rest of the day in a slight daze. Despite her internal pep talk, Nya just couldn't help but think about how her life had changed so much within the last year. Apart from that, the subjects she had weren't that hard. History was with Headmaster Wu, literature with a teacher called Yang, and science with Professor Borg. Cyrus Borg was actually a part-time teacher at the academy whilst still running his company. However, not many students who came to the academy came for the science and engineering aspect. No, they came just for the martial arts. Although Nya loved robotics, maths and science, she mainly came here just to lay low.

From the end of her classes and to the beginning of dinner, Nya had been in her dorm, doing her homework and also catching up on work she had missed out since she didn't start school at the beginning of the semester. She had expected Jay to come in and either talk her ear off or try and convince her to join his team – in she was going to keep declining.

Now that it was dinner, Nya sat by herself at one of the empty tables. She hoped that this time, Cole and Jay won't show up and she desperately hoped Dareth didn't as well. It's not that she had a thing against gay people but for one to hit on her… yeah, that's a little uncomfortable. But…. Luck is never on her side.

"Are you against making friends or something?" She heard Jay asked as she casually sat opposite her, his blonde friend sitting next to him.

"I didn't know it was a crime," Nya simply said as she looked down her food, hoping that they would see that she's boring and just leave.

"It could be," the blonde shrugged.

 _What was his name again? Oh, that's right, Lloyd._

"So… How are you fitting into the academy, Kai?" Lloyd asked, surprising Nya because she honestly thought Jay would be talking. Nope, instead he was eating his pudding.

"Well enough," she answered vaguely, still keeping her voice low.

"I saw my father go a little harsh on you this morning."

"It's not bad- wait, your father?" Nya gasped, her voice slightly higher as she stared at the blonde in shock.

"Yeah, he's Master Wu's nephew as well," Jay shrugged, a slight smirk on his lips.

"T-They're your father and uncle?"

"Yeah. Doesn't mean they go easy on me," Lloyd ended up chuckling. "However, they probably are expecting me to do well in the tournament-"

"If this is your other tactic on getting me to join, forget it. I don't want to join," Nya huffed in irritation.

"B-But-!"

"Listen," Lloyd quickly said, effectively cutting off Jay before the boy could blubber anything. "We're not desperate to recruit you. We can easily get two other people to join our team. For you, it isn't about competing or not, or even getting the chance to win. I also heard you're on a scholarship – meaning you need to be good in both academics and martial arts. Jay and I usually help whoever enters our team to get better – not just for our own benefit to win but to make sure they're better competitors in case if they want to compete again in future years."

"I appreciate the offer but I'm not interested," Nya firmly restated.

"Alright, fair enough," Lloyd stated as he leaned back in his chair. "But, depending on how well you do in the tournament with your team, your marks will boost up and it looks good on a resume. Our team always goes far in the competition – always in the semi-finals."

"I. Don't. Care," Nya stressed, gripping her cutlery tighter.

"Okay then," Lloyd shrugged as he got up, Jay looking at his friend in disbelief. "We'll see you tomorrow at sunrise exercise. By the way, Dareth is also dying to talk to you."

"What?!"

"Yeah. He wants to talk to you alone. As soon as we leave, he'll come over. Have fun, Kai" the blonde smirked before getting up with his tray of food and grabbing Jay by the arm.

 _Great…_

 **.::.**

A whole week had passed now and things weren't lightening up whatsoever. Nya found herself getting more exhausted and bruised with every training practice. Her skin kept getting rashes from the body suit. Luckily, Jay and Lloyd no longer pestered her to join but Cole and Zane continued to do so. Then, there was Dareth. Could a guy make it any else obvious that he was into her?

Nya was fortunate that the guy wasn't in the dinner hall today. Why? She had no idea and she didn't care. She didn't want to make any friends. She just needed to lay low. That's all.

The girl pushed her food around her plate with her fork while she looked down to her laps, her left hand holding the picture of her and Kai together. Since she had been really pretending to be like Kai, she found herself missing her older brother so much recently. She missed his grins, his smirks, the playful glares, his boastful comments or laughter. She missed his over-protective nature, his little temper spurts, his kind words.

She missed everything about him-

"Hey, what got you so low?"

Nya had gotten so used for people suddenly talking to her out of the blue; so this time she didn't flinch as Lloyd asked this as he and Jay invited themselves to sit at her table.

"Who said I looked low?" Nya asked as she looked up from her laps and to the two boys.

Over the last week, they would talk to her in a friendly manner. Jay was actually being really nice… But it made Nya wonder if he was doing it just to change her mind. He made a few jokes here and there in their dorm and believe it or not, she found out a little more about him.

He also enjoyed inventing stuff. He comes up with some creative ideas but do they actually work? No… That was probably why he didn't exactly get a scholarship into the school. Nya also found out that he was a bit of an active sleeper. He would murmur some things throughout the night or even sleepwalk. Once, Nya actually saw him kissing his pillow. Yeah, that was really disturbing. Nya was relieved that she didn't sleep talk – she didn't need to accidentally speak with her normal 'girly' voice in front of her roommate.

"Well, you were looking low," Jay quipped as he opened up his pudding. That was another thing Nya had discovered about her roommate, he really liked pudding.

"Whatever," Nya said with a simple shrug of her shoulders. "Come to try and convince me to join your team again?"

"Eh, not really. We're just noticing how you've been winching and rubbing your arms in class," Lloyd replied before taking a sip out of his drink.

"Let me guess, the harsh reality of training is settling in?" Jay asked.

"I'm doing fine. As if you guys didn't bruise in your first couple of weeks," Nya shot back.

"Touché," Jay chuckled. "Our offer still stands. Trust me, we won't beat you up."

"Yeah, the answer is still no."

"See, Kai doesn't want to join your team," Cole's voice suddenly said as he sat next to her.

 _Great… Not this again…_ Nya thought with a sigh while Zane sat on her other side… Not as close to her like Cole was.

"And why would he even want to join your team?" Jay asked, eyes narrowing at the dark-haired boy.

"Because we don't have a Motor Mouth on our team."

"Like Griffin is any better," Lloyd scoffed.

Nya hadn't really seen Jay and Cole argue since the first day. Heck, she hadn't even seen them together. They usually kept their distance. Why did it change today? She had no idea and she didn't care. She just didn't want to be in the middle of it again.

"Kai, what do you got here?"

Before Nya could even comprehend what Cole had asked, she felt a much larger hand grab the photo out of her hand.

"Is that you?"

"Hey, let us see!"

Nya's fingers curled into a fist, short nails digging into her palm while Nya started to unconsciously breathe in rapid but shallow breaths. Fear pelted into her gut, torturing it, and churning her stomach in tense cramps. Panic engulfed Nya's mind, knocking all other thoughts aside when she saw Jay and Lloyd leaning drastically forward to look at the photo in Cole's hand while Zane only craned his head up to gain a better advantage point.

"Whoa, is that your girlfriend?" Cole asked her, making Nya aware of the four boys who'd turned to look at her.

"N-N-No," Nya stammered, struggling to keep her voice low. "T-That's… That's my sister."

"Your sister?!"

"Dude, your sister is hot."

"Is she single?"

"Errr… yes she's my sister but none of you are picking her up," Nya grumbled, trying to calm herself from the slight panic attack and immediately put up the Kai persona. Kai used to chase some of the other boys away from her in Ignacia whenever they tried hitting on her – surely if he was here, he would do the same.

"Wait, so she is single?" Cole excitedly asked.

"No, you are not going after my sister," Nya firmly stated as she quickly snatched the photo out of Cole's hand and tucked it into her pocket, immediately feeling relieved that it was back.

"What's her name?" Jay next asked. _Seriously?!_

"I said no!" Nya snapped. "No one is going after my sister. End of discussion."

"Dude, you're no fun," Cole whined.

"Good, then stop coming to me to join your team!"

"No can do," Lloyd mused. "We're not going to stop until you join."

"Neither am I," Cole confidently said.

"But, you can take your pick," Zane suddenly spoke up, surprising Nya. "You can either finally join one of our teams, or pestered by these three for your sister."

"… Did Zane just blackmail?" Nya heard Jay whisper to Lloyd.

"I… I think so."

"You're making me pick between _my sister_ and _this?_ How do I even know that if I choose a team, you guys will keep your word to back off my sister?" Nya asked, a deep frown on her lips.

"I'll make Cole keep his word," Zane simply said. "Jay and Lloyd, I'm unsure about- but hey, it means that if you choose us, Cole won't keep asking about your sister."

"Zane, that's horrible!" Cole whined from her side.

"Lloyd and I will keep our word too," Jay quickly added.

This utterly sucked. Were they really going to make her choose between either talking about herself or choose a team? Nya thought about which one would make her more uncomfortable… Definitely talking about herself because if they eventually ask to meet 'Nya', ugh, that would be a nightmare to try and be two people at once- wait, as if she would ever do that. But they would keep pestering her to talk about 'herself'.

Joining a team… Is not the end of the world, but she honestly didn't want to.

"Come on, Kai. What will it be?" Cole asked, a little too eagerly.

"… I'll join one of your guys' stupid team-"

"Yes!"

"Hold up, hold up. If you choose Jay and Lloyd, I won't stop talking about your sister," Cole quipped.

"That's not the deal," Nya suddenly growled.

"If you choose us, we won't talk about her," Lloyd continued.

"Yep. You have our word," Jay concluded.

Nya looked between all four boys. It was quite obvious to her that Jay and Lloyd were the better option. Come on, if she picked Cole, it was honestly going to be a warzone in her dorm with Jay. Plus, Zane didn't seem that interested in 'Nya'.

 _So if I were to go with Jay and Lloyd (if they keep their word), they won't pester me, whereas Cole will. If I were to go with Zane and Cole… Lloyd and Jay may decide that they'll do what Cole had suggested and keep asking me about 'my sister' and won't stop pestering me._

"… Fine, I'm on Jay's and Lloyd's team."

 **G'day everyone! Sorry if this chapter seemed rushed to you, I was working pretty much all week. But thank you for all your lovely reviews and support! It means so much to me! Thanks to NinjagoGeek4Ever, EchoIsACutie, The-Sad-Umbreon and Endeavor16 for following and favouriting. And thanks to Natalie Singe, Just Someone Not Important, CatGirl.02, Endeavor16, unknown and Guest for reviewing!**

 **Once again, feel free to leave any feedback or criticisms, I'm open to suggestions and harsh words. Even leave a question! Until then, I'll see you all next week with a new chapter! Xoxo – ZaneLoverFan88.**


	4. Chapter 4 - External Glimpses

**Chapter 4  
External Glimpses**

 **.:Nya:.**

 _As a young child, Nya hated the dark. She hated what would be lurking in there, what could jump out and what could kill her. As a child, night was always so eerie. To her, night was a pitch-black curtain that draped over the outside world, suffocating those in the dark. Now, Nya found herself hating it even more. The night had always been the time when the demons residing within her wanting to come out to play; to invade her mind of gut-wrenching memories._

 _But… Nya had learned to appreciate it more. Although the night and the dark hide things, it hid her bruises from people who were out and about._

 _Nya quickened her pace as she walked towards the edge of Ignacia where her little home and family blacksmith were. Her footsteps echoed sharply around the deserted square, sounding loud in her own ears, like the booming heart-beat of a condemned prisoner._

 _As she got closer to home, she could hear yelling. It was Kai and her uncle. Who else could it be? Nya immediately broke into a run. Instead of the sharp footsteps she had made before, her feet now pounded the stone path with all the grace of a sack of wet concrete. Nya mentally winched as the uneven paving stones made her ankles bend at slightly weird angles as her foot contacted the ground._

 _It didn't take long for her to throw open the doors to the store and quickly run up the creaky wooden stairs. Once she entered her home, her nose was assaulted with the strong stench of alcohol; however, her eyes took in the sight in front of her. In front of the lamp that casted a dim light across the room, her brother and her uncle were face to face – both wearing expression full of anger and rage. Nya felt worry slither into her stomach as she spotted a whiskey bottle clenched tightly in her uncle's hand, the amber liquid 'swishing' within the glass with every angry hand gestured her uncle made._

 _"I'm the adult here, you're not!" Her uncle yelled, jabbing a finger into Kai's chest who only stood his ground. "So don't you tell me what to do, boy!"_

 _"You're not acting like the adult here!" Kai yelled back. "You need to stop all of this!"_

 _"I can do whatever I want!" Aidan shouted, saliva flying out of his mouth._

 _"If that's the case, leave Nya completely out of it!" Her brother thundered, voice louder than Nya had ever heard it before. "Don't think I don't see what you do to her! Or the fact that you're probably making her keep quiet about this from me!"_

 _Nya felt panic begin like a cluster of sparks in her lower stomach. Tension rapidly grew in her face and her limbs as she watched the scene unfolded in front of her. In her mind, Nya was trying to search through her memories of how Kai could have possibly known. She made sure to cover the bruises. She never wanted him to know for this particular reason!_

 _"How long?" Kai suddenly growled, taking another step towards Aidan to the point their chests were nearly touching. "How long have you been hurting my sister?"_

 _"I don't have to answer to you."_

 _"You do!"_

 _"I am the adult here!"_

 _"No, you're just a selfish, alcoholic bastard-"_

 _Nya gasped as her uncle smashed the bottle of whiskey against Kai's face._

 _'No, no, no, this didn't happen! He only hit Kai!' She frantically thought; however, Nya watched in horror as blood profusely poured from the cuts the glass made as it penetrated Kai's skin._

 _"No!"_

"Kai, wake up! Come on, you're starting to freak me out."

Once Nya heard Jay's voice, the whole memory and nightmare vanished within a second. Her eyes no longer saw the blood and broken glass but the roof of her dorm with her roommate's worried face to the side. The girl immediately ignored him as she sat up, blankets falling from her shoulders but she placed her face into her hands.

 _"Just breathe, Nya,"_ she could hear Kai's voice say in her head, his voice tender and soothing. " _Count five things you can see, four things you can hear, three things you can touch, two things you can smell and one thing you can taste."_

Nya immediately started. Through her fingers, she could see the woollen blanket and her black socks sticking out from the end of the blanket. Obviously her fingers would count but she could also see the mahogany bedframe and the desk that was at the end of her bed. She then could hear the harsh sounds of her breath coming from her lips, the resonating sound of her pounding heart, the annoying tick of Jay's clock and the birds from outside. She then could feel her fingers on her face, the warmth the blankets provided for her lower body and the ache in her shoulders from the muscle suit. She could smell oil from her tinkering last night and the fresh smell of new sheets. Finally, she could barely taste the toothpaste she brushed her teeth with from last night.

With that, Nya felt a lot calmer. Her chest was no longer running a hundred metre sprint and her gasps of airs were finally soft breaths.

"So… Err… You okay?"

Nya mentally groaned, forgetting that her roommate was the very one who had woken her up from that nightmare… Meaning he probably witnessed her thrashing or whatever she does in her sleep whenever she had a nightmare.

"Fine," Nya answered curtly before looking over to the window to see it was sunrise.

She then looked back to her roommate who still hadn't shaken off his concerned look. But, she took notice of how he was dressed up in his training uniform. _Why? It's the weekend. We have no classes…_

"Well… If you're okay, it's time to get up."

"For what?"

"Training."

"It's _Saturday._ "

"When else did you expect Lloyd and I to train you and Brad?"

"When it isn't bloody the break of dawn."

"Hmmm… No can do. Come on, get up. We're already making Lloyd and Brad wait."

 **.::.**

"C-Can we take a break?" Nya panted as she was finding herself struggling to keep up with the fast pace Brad, Lloyd and Jay were running at.

Instead of going straight into sparring or even learning how to spar -like Nya thought they were going to do- Jay and Lloyd wanted the group to go for a morning run. So, Nya immediately thought it would be a 'ten-minute run' sort of warmup… Nope. They had been running for thirty minutes straight at a speed that was a bit _too_ fast for comfort.

Lloyd and Jay introduced her to Brad, apparently their newbie from last year who would also still be a part of the team. He was two years younger than them but Nya found herself liking the boy. He was the same height as her, black hair that _was_ combed nicely. Now, it had kind of risen in a bit of a frizz. Apparently, Brad had used to be quite bad -or so he claimed- but Lloyd and Jay apparently really helped him out… like they will to her.

But this… _This felt like torture_.

"Trust me, we're nearly done this lap. It's just another five minutes!" Jay called from the front, apparently being the fastest.

Nya nodded in acknowledgement, keeping her lips shut from the complaint that wanted to spill out about this gruelling pace because if she forced herself to keep up, it would be five minutes. Any slower, it would take longer.

But the humidity of the jungle surrounding the academy made her feel sticky and suffocated. Her clothes and muscle suit were already drenched in sweat from the hard run. Her hair was no longer in spikes but completely floppy with perspiration. Lloyd and Jay already made a few comments on that. Her shoulders felt like they were roasting. Since the muscle suit was drenched with sweat, it weighed a little heavier and since it was so hot (despite the sun _only rising half an hour ago_ ), she could just feel herself overheating. All she hoped now was that she doesn't collapse.

As soon as they through the walls that surrounded the academy, Nya willingly let herself fall to the ground, panting hard. Her throat was so dry, so _uncomfortably_ dry. Her limbs already felt numb and painfully sore.

"I think we broke him already." She heard Lloyd snicker from the side, drawing laughter from both Jay and Brad. It just made Nya groan as she fought to gather her breath.

"We didn't work you too hard already, did we?" Jay teased as he crouched down by her, making her glare at him.

"Of course not. The ground was just inviting me to lie on it," Nya muttered sarcastically.

"Well, you can't be too tired just yet. The thirty minute jog was just a warm up-"

" _What?!_ " Nya gasped as she bolted upwards. "Warm up?!"

"Obviously we get a bit of a break now," Brad laughed but Nya ignored him as she glared at Jay.

"Don't worry, we'll tone it down for you," Jay reassured her. "But give it a couple of weeks and thirty minutes at this speed will be easy."

"Yeah, it only took Brad about three weeks," Lloyd quipped. "I'll go and set up the dojo. Come over when you're ready to train."

"Never…" Nya grumbled, erupting laughter from the guys.

"You go ahead, I'll stay back so Kai actually does come," Jay told Brad and Nya watched as the other two boys left… leaving her and Jay alone. Great.

Silence hung in the air. It was a gaping void, just waiting to be filled with a sound, a word… just anything. Nya reflected upon the past week. Although she decided to join Jay's and Lloyd's team on Monday, they didn't really actually do any sort of training during the week. What they did do was question her – which made Nya very nervous. But they asked what her strengths and weaknesses would be. How smart was she, what was she scared of, was she stealthy and other questions like that.

As Nya continued to regain her breath, she looked up to the baby blue sky. There were only a few clouds, acting like white ribbons upon the velvet sky, making a half-spiral as if fluttering in lofty breezes.

"So… Ummm… Fluffy clouds."

Nya looked over to Jay who was awkwardly looking at the sky before his eyes flickered over to her.

"Fluffy clouds? That's the best you can come up with?"

"I mean we could talk about this morning but…" her roommate slowly trailed off before shaking his head and looking to her with that stupid concern look. "… Do you have nightmares often?"

"Why'd you ask?"

"I noticed you have them a few times over the last two weeks you have been here," Jay commented but Nya just sighed.

"It's nothing," Nya dismissively stated as she stood up. "Let's go."

 **.:Jay:.**

Jay leaned against the wall of the dojo, blue eyes carefully observing as Lloyd sparred lightly with Kai while Brad was off to the side with a punching bag and practicing his kicks.

Truth be told, Brad was actually pretty horrible last year. Cole ended up taking the better newbie onto his team so it left Brad for Lloyd and Jay. After they had trained him, he was much better; and now that it had been seven months since they had won last year's tournament, Brad was actually doing a lot better. Still, his skills could use with some improvements. He's not a strong martial artist, nor was he very fast or agile; but he wasn't weak, slow or rigid. In fact, he was above average for his strength, speed and agility. He was a fast learner and his memory was outstanding but the one thing that was Brad's biggest weakness was his fears.

Every year of the tournament, there was always at least one round that got to do with fears. Last year, they had to navigate through a maze with absolutely no lights. There were only five teams left in the competition so they had to find the exit while also trying not to get attacked by another team- but oh, here comes the best part: the maze was absolutely crawling with spiders, insects and mice. Brad was absolutely petrified of spiders and freaked out, so Jay and Ash ended up carrying him through the maze.

However, observing Kai, Jay knew the boy was quickly adjusting to all the feedback Lloyd was giving him during their spar. One thing Jay did notice was that Kai was very heavy on his feet. He was even a bit stiff in the shoulders. He was a bit slow to react to certain attacks but if Lloyd was pushing down on him, Kai would strengthen his stance through his legs to get the right balance not to fall over but to still be able to hold up Lloyd's strength.

Jay also noticed that after a while, Kai would get very red in the face and beads of sweat would roll down his skin. The crazy thing was that he wasn't even showing signs that he was getting exhausted. No, he was still able to train. That meant that he was overheating but he didn't even bother to roll up his sleeves on his uniform. Lloyd's sleeves were already rolled up while Brad's shirt was already discarded carelessly to the ground.

"Let's take a break," Jay called out, leaning off the wall.

Jay saw how Kai immediately sat on the ground, legs spread out and leaning back on his arms with his head tilted all the way back to gulp in air. Lloyd, however, just simply shrugged and walked over to his bottle of water, Brad doing the same.

"You look dead," Jay mused as he approached Kai, taking a mental note that Kai's weakness must be endurance. "Tired already?"

"A little… Just a bit hot. That's all," Kai muttered through deep breaths.

"Have some water then. Cool off. Probably take off the shirt too. That's why you're overheating."

"No thanks," Kai immediately said, surprising Jay.

"No need to be shy!" Brad called out from the drinking station, voice full of tease. "We not like Dareth; we won't take advantage of you."

"Yeah, we're all straight here," Lloyd laughed next, making Jay chuckle from the ridiculousness of their conversation but Kai did not crack a smile.

That was another thing Jay noticed about the new boy: he didn't smile much. Heck, Jay hadn't even heard the boy laugh! Actually, that was a lie. Earlier in the weak, Kai did release a bitter and sarcastic laugh. Sometimes, Jay couldn't figure out his roommate. Kai was more confusing than the girls from Misako's Academy for Young Independent Women (renamed from 'Misako's Academy for Girls' two years ago). Jay just wanted to know everything about his stoic and somewhat bitter roommate.

The only thing Jay knew about Kai from the last two weeks was that Kai was smart. He was really good when it came to robotics and the science classes. Jay also knew that Kai was bitter, not much of a talker, extremely quiet in everything he does, he got a hot younger sister, and he also had trouble sleeping at night. Other than that, Jay knew nothing about Kai. He didn't know which school Kai had transferred from, what part of Ninjago did he live in, what his parents were like or any hobbies. Just… Just nothing.

"I think after this break, we should move on from sparring and maybe start Kai on weapons," Jay suggested as he looked to his blonde friend.

Although he had previously stated that sometimes Lloyd could be childish and an idiot, he still had a lot of wisdom. Then again, his uncle was the headmaster, his father was really wise and his mother was the headmistress of their sister school. Wisdom must run in the family…

 _Even though wisdom isn't exactly a genetic thing that can be passed down._

"Finally…" Kai muttered, attracting Jay's attention.

"Er… Finally?"

"I know swordsmanship."

 _Wait… WHAT?!_

"You know swordsmanship?!" Jay exclaimed. "Why didn't you say anything before hand?!"

"You didn't ask about swordsmanship."

"But we were talking about weaknesses and strengths!"

"Of fighting with hand to hand combat," Kai muttered, rolling his eyes.

"So… When you say swordsmanship, which one? Kendo? Fencing? Or is it more specifically ninja swordsmanship?"

"No. More like samurai kenjutsu swordsmanship," Kai revealed, making Jay feel a little… deflated.

Why? The martial arts taught at Wu's Academy for Boys took more of a ninjutsu approach. So, they had been taught to be light on their feet, strike openings that the opponent leave open in their defence and to be incredibly agile. Samurais? They had been taught to remain strong in their stance, they utilise weapons instead of hand to hand combat and they fight 'honourably'. In other words, if they were to engage in a sword fight, samurai will fight until one is disarmed and the opponent is at the mercy. Ninjas? Historically, they just strike openings and sneak in attacks and then kill. In modern era, or at least what Master Wu and Garmadon taught them, they fight to disarm and knock out.

"So… You've been taught to fight like a samurai," Lloyd sighed, also picking up the new complication.

"Yeah."

"That's cool. That means Kai is pretty well trained in swordsmanship and kenjutsu," Brad enthusiastically stated while Jay shook his head.

"No. It means we have to reteach Kai. Kenjutsu and the martials art we are learning are too different. We've been taught that we have to remain light on our fight, look for openings and strike them. Samurais don't do that. They have a strong stance – hence why Kai doesn't move his feet much- and they fight to disarm and leave it at that."

"But to disarm, they have to strike openings… Right?" Brad asked, confusion entering his face.

"No… The way I've been taught is to carefully manoeuver the katana around the opponent's own sword and disarm them that way. It's the swordsmanship technique and being able to withstand each other's strength," Kai explained.

"While our swordsmanship is to exchange quick sword parries, theirs is more strength orientated… Crap," Lloyd groaned.

"Well… Look on the brighter side of things, if we can teach Kai how to be quicker, he'll be an even better competitor in sword duals. I mean he'll be able to apply more strength and can apply some of his samurai techniques to win. I mean kenjutsu and martial arts are two great assets to have," Brad said with a huge grin.

"… He has a point," Lloyd mused. "I mean Kai has something that no other team would have."

"Yet, he's also sneaky like a ninja," Jay next said, a grin creeping onto his face.

"You guys are expecting a lot out of me," Kai suddenly reminded, making the three of them look down to him. "For me to learn all these new things and then to be able to apply both martial arts- well, ninjutsu and kenjustu, it's just too insane especially when they have polar opposite techniques."

"Unless you integrate them," Jay stated. "Be light on your feet but once someone, like Cole, uses strength, the stance you would have learnt would be able to adapt into that situation. You get me?"

"I guess…"

"I'm so glad we got you," Lloyd beamed and Jay couldn't agree anymore.

 **Okay, rushed and crappy ending but I have a perfectly good reason as to why! I have finally,** ** _FINALLY,_** **watched season 7 and 8 and guess what? The first episode of season 9 had just aired in Australia 5 hours ago AND IT IS AMAZING! Once again, massive thanks to: CatGirl.02, Guest, Natalie Singe, Just Someone Not Important, unknown, AuroraRain18, Guest, RandomDragon2.0, MasterofCupcakes and all my silent readers!**

 **Natalie Singe:** **Will we get to see Nya as Nya? At this point of time, I am planning to do so but I may scrap the idea if it would cause complications later on. I haven't exactly got my whole plot figured out just yet (which I should very soon). And thank you so being so sweet :)**

 **Just Someone Not Important:** **I got to be honest with you, I miss your old username. It was so short and quick to type out XD. Anyway, about Kai's actual status, I intend to keep you all in the dark and to keep guessing. Is he alive? Is he dead? Is he the actual one in hiding and Nya is trying to protect him? You won't find out til later in the story ;)**

 **AuroraRain18:** **Awwwww, thanks! I tried to keep the season 1 and 2 feel since I hadn't seen the new ones but hopefully, in the future chapters, I can in-cooperate their slightly newer personalities in this story's character development.**

 **MasterofCupcakes:** **At this point in time, I'm planning to let the guys see Nya as Nya but I may scrap the idea if it could cause complications later on. I haven't exactly got my whole plot figured out just yet (which I should very soon).**

 **Once again, thank you all for your support and lovely comments! I'll see you all next week with a new chapter! Xoxo – ZaneLoverFan88**


	5. Chapter 5 - Fear's Torment

**WARNING** **: The first part of Nya's point of view (italics) contains explicit abuse.**

 **Chapter 5  
Fear's Torment**

 **.:Jay:.**

Two months had passed since he and Lloyd had been intensively training Kai. He had been learning at an incredibly fast rate that it was really surprising him and Lloyd. Believe it or not, Kai was at the same level as Brad – something that the younger boy was a bit sour about but got over it within three days.

Kai's speed and endurance had definitely picked up. He was still a little heavy on his footwork but it was faster and lighter than what it was before. The day they had discovered that Kai had training in the samurai arts and in kenjutsu, he and Lloyd had a sword dual - since Lloyd, out of the rest of the team, had the better swordsmanship. Kai put up a good fight but Lloyd was the faster and stronger opponent and after a long minute, finally managed to sweep Kai off his feet.

Apart from training, Jay was still struggling to learn more about his roommate. Like he had promised, he didn't ask Kai about his sister. Instead, Jay had asked Kai more about his interests, his childhood and where he grew up in. Kai answered vaguely what he was interested in and dodged the questions about his past – which infuriated Jay. The only new thing that Jay had discovered was that Kai was a really good inventor.

The two got paired up in their robotics lab to do a project together. Using the basic schematics and blueprints Borg had created for his 'most simplest and plain' robot, the class had to design their own twist onto the robot and build it. Jay was proud of his own ideas that he tried to project; however, Kai had pointed out many flaws that would affect the electrical circuit to other functions of the robot. Then, he would suggest other ways to apply Jay's idea to the robot – which, so far, seemed to be working really well.

Kai may be smart but Jay didn't think he had a lot of creativity. The two kind of complimented each other well for that. Jay got the imagination, Kai got the better intelligence.

At the moment, it was late evening. Jay was in the library, studying with Lloyd for their upcoming history exam. Kai was supposed to join them before saying he had a stomach ache and bailed out on them. It happened before… maybe a month ago? They were eating dinner when Kai claimed he was feeling sick with a stomach ache and left in a rush.

"Let's take a break. I really don't want to talk more about the Serpentine War," Lloyd groaned, banging his head into his textbook. Jay just sighed and leaned back in his seat.

"Neither, but we only took a break ten minutes ago for five minutes."

"So? We can take another break," Lloyd muttered, making Jay snort in amusement.

"Alright, but this time we have to be productive."

"Don't you understand the concept of a break? It means relaxing the brain with something fun."

"We did that not too long ago. I just think we should think about how we should try and start the obstacle training," Jay suggested, watching as Lloyd sat up with more interest. "Kai have learnt a lot. He'll still be learning as we go onto more tournament-orientated activities."

"True but it'll be too hard to do obstacle training. Nearly all teams are using the dojo now to train in spare times."

"Then we just go out to the forest around the academy. Make our own course, climb trees, leap over roots, logs and rocks…"

"That's a really poor substitute but I guess it'll have to do-"

"Hey guys! Is Kai here?"

Both boys looked over their right shoulders to see Dareth standing by the table they were studying at. The greasy-haired boy had three different textbooks clutched to his chest but his dark eyes were looking around… as if expecting Jay's roommate to make an appearance.

"No, he's not here," Jay sighed.

He liked Dareth. The guy was funny but he culd be annoying sometimes. Luckily, Dareth never tried to pursue him but he did try pursuing Lloyd last year. Jay had never seen the blonde so red before – it was just downright hilarious.

"Kai's straight, dude. You need to actually find someone else who have similar interests," Lloyd told the guy who immediately shook off the blonde's comment.

"But he's cute."

"Really Dareth?"

"Come on, when he's flustered, he looks cute."

"Kai? Cute? He'll deck you so hard if he ever hears you say that," Jay snorted, imaging just how the hot-tempered boy would react to such a comment.

"But the way he plays with his hair..."

"Kai plays with his hair?" Lloyd asked, raising a brow. "I know he styles it into that ridiculous do but I never seen him _play_ with it."

"He does, in the back of class. You guys never noticed?"

"Of course not," Jay said with a shrug. "Have you two even talked since his first week here?"

"Ummm… No- Ooh! Jay, you should introduce me to him- like properly introduce."

"Dareth?"

"Yes..?"

"I'm going to introduce you to my fist soon."

"Nah, it's not my type."

"My foot?"

And at this, Dareth remained silent.

 **.:Nya:.  
** **WARNING** **: The first part of Nya's point of view (** ** _italics_** **) contains explicit abuse.**

 _"Pathetic!"_

 _Nya cried out as his hands gripped agonisingly into her shoulders, his fingers piercing hard into the already-aching muscles underneath her battered skin. But that wasn't the only source of pain. No. When Aidan started to violently shake her, it caused pain to flare up and rippled through her body. Then, with a harsh shove, Nya was thrown off balance, her body landing on a small end-table where the empty vase immediately shattered._

 _When she landed on the floor, she cried out to feel individual pieces of ceramic piercing through the thin shirt she was wearing and into her skin. But, the shards deepened when her uncle grabbed fistfuls of the front of her shirt, slightly lifting her up before slamming her back onto the floor. Her back flared in sharp pain while her head obtained a violent throb._

 _"You think you can talk back to me, huh?"_

 _Although his words were drastically slurred, his voice was so full of hatred and anger which was equally matched by his fist which slammed into the side of her face. Agony immediately blossomed on the left side of her face while dark dots swam into Nya's vision. Tears continued as a stream down her face._

 _After a few more punches, her uncle no longer beat her with his fist but his foot. Each kick was sent to her stomach, but without meaning to, her body curled into something fetal and something primeval as the pain radiated through her body._

 _"S-Stop!" Nya managed to whimper out between each cry of pain. "P-Please…!"_

 _"You want me to stop?" Her uncle had all but growled, but Nya cried out louder when his hand reached down to grab her hair before brutally dragging her across the room and down the stairs where each step she was dragged down sent her body screaming in pain._

 _By the bottom of the stairs, Nya was barely conscious of it all. Her mind was drifting in and out of the world of unconsciousness. Her body was aggressively pulsating in agony. It was like a knife was being twisted into her spine; paralysing her body with numbness to everything but the pain._

 _Suddenly, a searing shot of excruciating pain ran up Nya's body. A scream escaped her lips, the devastating sound bouncing off the room of the forge. Pain seared through her shoulder as the smell of burning skin reached her nose._

 _"Nya!"_

 _Kai's voice was so distant through the thick fog of pain that flooded her mind. She barely took notice of how her body fell to the floor - she was only concentrating on the pain in her shoulder; however, a small part of her mind told her to get up, despite all the pain._

"Kai, wake up."

 _Nya didn't know why but she tried. She slowly tried to get up but quickly realised that such a thing was nearly impossible to accomplish._

"Come on, it's just a nightmare!"

 _Nya had to bite hard on her bottom lip to keep from crying out. Pain, once again, pulsated through her as dots flashes in front of her eyes._

"Just wake up!"

Nya gasped awake as a sharp pain temporarily flashed through her right shoulder. She immediately bolted up, gasping for air – completely ignoring Jay who had yelped out at her sudden movement and stumbled back (he must had just come back from the library since he still had his textbook in his hand). The pain that had occupied her in her dream had dimmed down to a dull ache that still throbbed through her body.

"Kai?" She could hear Jay ask, his voice so full of worry but she couldn't face him. Not now.

So, in a flash, she threw the blankets off her before stumbling her way to the bathroom and slamming the door shut.

Nya immediately pressed her back to the door, eyes clamped shut. It felt like an invisible hand had clasped over her mouth. It felt like her ribs were bounded by ropes, straining to inflate her lungs. Her mind was becoming a carousel of fear, spinning out of control as memory after memory invaded her mind. Memory of her uncle's hard and angry brown eyes. Memory of the scorching sword that Aidan had pulled out of the furnace to burn her. Memory. Memory. Memory.

"Kai? Are you okay?"

"Fine!" Nya spat out, as she moved from the door and to the sink where she immediately turned on the tap, cold water spilling. Nya cupped her hands under the water and splashed her face, trying to get her mind to concentrate on anything but those memories.

"Are you sure-"

"I said I'm fine!"

"There's blood on the bed! You expect me to think that you're fine?!"

 _Blood?_

Nya's face suddenly morphed into horror as she looked down and immediately cringed to see that her pants were stained red. Of all things, why blood? Why can't her period be like… fairy dust or something?

"Kai, is everything okay?"

"I j-just opened a cut from weapons training this morning."

"A cut?"

"It's not d-deep," Nya lied before looking around the small bathroom.

She had no clothes in here and her tampons were in her bag. She couldn't go back out there and risk Jay seeing her like this. Just because he missed it when she was rushing to the bathroom didn't mean he wouldn't notice it again. She needed him to leave. But how?

 _Come on, Nya. Think!_

"… Can you go and grabbed some bandages?"

"Yeah. I'll be back."

And when the front door closed to signalise that Jay had left, Nya couldn't help but let out a sigh.

 _How much worse can this get?_

 **.::.**

After cleaning herself up and wrapping the bandages around the 'fake wound' on her leg, Nya wordlessly went back to her bed, ignoring the way Jay stared at her. She had noticed that he changed the sheets… which was actually nice of him.

However, Nya crawled back into bed and brought the blankets to cover her thoroughly while keeping her back to Jay.

"… You want to talk about it-?"

"No," Nya answered curtly in a mumble as she closed her eyes shut, trying to push everything out of her mind.

"It isn't healthy to not talk about it."

"I don't care. I'm not talking about it," Nya bitterly muttered.

There was no way Nya was going to talk about this to anyone – and especially not Jay. She didn't need her roommate to know that she was a girl or anything relating to her past because she knew that if she did, Jay would pity her – that was the last thing she wanted.

But… She hated how her uncle was controlling like this. Even though there was so much distance between them, he was always there with her. In her mind spreading fear. That was what Nya hated the most: fear. To some people, their fear consisted of spiders, heights, the dark or water – her brother's fear. To Nya, it ran deeper than that. She wasn't scared of the dark but she was scared of what was in it. She wasn't scared of heights. She was scared of falling with no one there to catch her.

But Nya's biggest fear was her uncle. Not because he could hurt her but because of the way he made her body react. How his memory could make her lungs struggle to breathe, how it could make her panic and how it could make her lose all coherent thought. She hated he made her feel fear. She hated fear just because of what it does to her.

It loitered around inside of her while she tried to helplessly -every time- to shut it out. It crawled around in her stomach while spreading fire in her chest. It poked at her brain and played with her mind. It whispered acidulous words inside of her ears and bit at her tongue. It climbed up her spine, crushing her bones with its unbeatable strength, demanding to be felt.

If fear was a person, it would be the type of person to knock on her door. Even if she were to adamantly refuse its company, it would barge its way in and make itself feel at home… But fear wasn't human. It was an emotion. Humans, you could kill. Emotions, you couldn't.

Nya was slowly drawn out from her thoughts when a soft herbal scent drifted over to her nose. That was when she heard Jay shuffling about from their tiny kitchenette. Soon, his footsteps came towards her bed.

"Drink this."

Nya rolled over, annoyed but she eyed the ceramic teacup within Jay's hand as he held it out to her.

"What's that?"

"Lavender and chamomile tea," Jay answered as he still held it out to her. "It helps with sleep."

"I sleep just fine."

"It might help with the nightmares. Just take it."

Nya sighed but she sat up in the bed and took the teacup from Jay and took a small sip… which soon led her to finishing it in a few seconds, the hot fluid sliding down her throat.

"Feel better?" Her roommate asked, causing Nya to nod. "Good… May as well head to bed early and get in some extra sleep for tomorrow's training."

Jay turned his back to her before preparing for bed. Nya could only stay seated as she stared down at the tea cup. It didn't take long for Jay to change into his sleeping wear (which he did do in front of her but Nya's pretty used to it by now), to turn off the lights and then crawl into his own bed. That was when Nya settled the cup on her bedside table and laid back down onto the mattress.

"… Jay?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks… For the tea, for the bandages, for-"

"It's okay, Kai. Just… Just know that if you need someone to talk to, I'm here. I don't know what's going on with you but… I just hope you can sort it out."

 _Me too…_

 **Sorry for the short chapter, I went on a camping, stargazing and road trip with my best friends for a couple of days and then this morning, I woke up at two with a severe flu so at the moment, I'm feeling pretty crappy. But I promise the next one will be longer. But massive thanks to TheNinjaOfArt, Endeavor16, RandomDragon2.0, NatalieSinge, unknown, CatGirl.02, daniaanlyn, Jaell, Just Someone Not Important, Guest, Cerenda and my silent readers for supporting me!**

 **NatalieSinge:** Yeah, the fluffy clouds I did get inspired by Zuko and Sokka. I love it too! Is Zuko your favourite character?

 **Just Someone Not Important:** I couldn't believe I forgot about that! I doubled checked with The Lone Wanderer and realised you were right xD Good memory, obviously mine forgot my own story.

 **Next time, I'll give you all a longer chapter. That's a promise. Until then, I'll see you all next week! Xoxo – ZaneLoverFan88**


	6. Chapter 6 - Amicability of Others

**Chapter 6  
Amicability of Others**

 **.:Nya:.**

 _Nya softly sighed as she continued to watch as the sun slowly disappeared behind the horizon, letting its colours linger in the sky. Dashes of dandelion yellow and carrot orange blended in behind the long trails of clouds while the horizon was flaring in candy red._

 _Although her amber eyes were taking in the scene, her ears could hear footsteps coming towards the tree she was perched in. It wasn't the only thing she could hear; she could hear the wind rustling the leaves, the chirps of crickets and the tweets from the birds. But judging from the slight heaviness to the footsteps, Nya knew it was her brother._

 _She didn't move from her position in the tree. Heck, she didn't even move her head to acknowledge her own brother. No, she just continued to stare at the sunset… Or more like the remaining rays of light over the far mountain range. Soon, the sound of her brother climbing the tree met her ears which made her shuffle over to give enough room for him to sit on the branch._

 _"Ugh, I'm getting too old for this," Kai said as he finally settled himself next to her._

 _Nya let the tiniest of smiles enter her lips when these words reached her ears. That was one of the things she loved about Kai – he just knew what to say to make her feel better. He could depart the bittersweet truth; he could give wisdom or make a wise-crack joke just to lift the mood._

 _"I can't begin to imagine what you'll be like in fifty years' time when you're in your sixties."_

 _"Probably getting spoon-fed, living the life of the riches."_

 _"Sounds nice… until you're too old that you can't even wipe your own butt."_

 _"Okay, that's just gross," Kai pouted but Nya softly chuckled, allowing herself to lean onto her brother._

 _His arm immediately wrapped around her shoulder and his radiating warmth warmed her up. For many minutes, they didn't say anything. They just watched as the sky began to darken while a couple stars had finally decided to bless them with their presence. Dim as it may be, Nya still found it to be a spectacular sight._

 _"… How's your shoulder?" Kai softly asked, resulting Nya to sigh as her mind went to the scalding wound on her right shoulder which throbbed in pain once in a while._

 _"Okay… I guess," Nya murmured._

 _"I still think we should run away."_

 _"And go where? We got no money… And what about Dad's store?"_

 _"I rather have you safe and away from_ _ **him**_ _," Kai hissed lowly, his body tensing with anger but Nya wrapped her arms around her brother, knowing this would immediately sooth him._

 _"Just… whatever happens, promise to never leave me… okay?"_

 _"Of course. Well… If your life depended on it, I might-"_

 _"No. I don't want to lose you too…" Nya whispered._

 _She felt her brother shift in her arms and when she looked up, he looked down to her with a soft look in his eyes._

 _"You won't lose me. Ever. Maybe we might get separated but no matter what, I promise to always find you and stay by your side."_

 _"Good… I just can't lose you… Not after Mum and Dad-"_

 _"And you won't," Kai repeated before bringing her close into a tight hug. "Now you have to promise me you won't go either."_

 _"Of course. I'll stick to you like a bad smell."_

 _"Great to know," Kai sarcastically muttered with a dramatic roll of his eyes but Nya just laughed._

When Nya woke up, she slowly and reluctantly opened her amber eyes to be greeted with the roof of the dorm she shared with Jay. She blinked a couple times, allowing her eyes to adjust to the sunlight that penetrated through the window and curtain. She turned her head over to see Jay was still sleeping, pillow tucked in his arms like a teddy bear.

It had been two weeks since Jay had given her that tea… Two weeks since her last nightmare. Nya couldn't believe it but that tea made her sleep just like a baby. Most nights, she fell asleep into a dreamless slumber. Some nights, she would have some weird but pleasant dreams… And some nights, she would have a memory. A happy memory with either her parents or her brother.

The effects of this were immediate. The bags under her eyes slowly began to fade. Nya felt this newfound energy that she didn't think she would ever have again and the chain reaction it had was great. She was more attentive in class and she found that her endurance would be much better in training. Jay must had noticed because every night, he made her drink two cups of that tea – not that Nya was complaining. If it kept the nightmares contained, then she would happily drink it.

But today, today was something new. Why? Because their small grade of approximately thirty students was heading to Misako's Academy for Young Independent Women – Lloyd's mother's academy.

Truth be told, Nya was extremely nervous. As a young girl, she didn't interact with girls. Just the boys. When she was on the run for a few months, Nya avoided long interactions with anyone. Now, they were going to an all-girls school and then get partnered up with a girl to work on a project. What if her partner would easily distinguish that she was a girl? Girls were a lot more observant than boys – well, with the exception of Zane but Nya was sure he didn't know that she was a girl.

Lloyd and Jay didn't share her nervousness. Nope. Both boys were looking forward to seeing the girls. (* _cough_ * T-Testosterone * _cough*_ ) They were excited to see the girls since they complain they rarely see any and they weren't even allowed score her 'sister'. But apparently, they were most excited to seeing Skylor who was supposedly this very pretty and intelligent girl… However, she was hard to get.

" _Every time we go over to their school to do these collaborations, everyone in our grade would try to pick her up but…she keeps brushing us off. Almost like how you did when you first came except she's much politer about it."_ Jay had explained. " _And normally, after six weeks of collaborations, their school holds this annual ball for both academies' students. For the last three years, she went solo with her friends."_

 _"Did she at least dance with anyone?"_

 _"Yeah. Just Lloyd since he's her headmistress' son…"_

"Kai… You up? That's a first."

Nya looked over to her roommate's bed to see the occupier was sitting up, yawning and rubbing the sleep away from his eyes.

"Whatever. We better get ready," Nya dismissively said as she swung her legs over the edge of the bed to prepare herself for the day.

"Get ready? Ready for what? We don't have sunrise exercise today- OH! We're seeing the girls!"

And like that, her roommate rushed out of bed, making Nya shake her head with a chuckle on the tip of her tongue. She gathered all the things she needed from her bag and headed straight for the bathroom. With that, she prepared herself for the day: retightening the bandages around her chest and putting the muscle suit on again… which was actually getting tighter with each passing week.

Since Nya had been intensively training in sunrise exercises and training with her team, along with having food every day, her body was changing before her. She was no longer scrawny looking and the muscle mass kept building. Even in her face, her sullen cheeks and eyes looked a little fuller but not so much in a feminine way (in which Nya would be forever grateful for).

Nya made sure her uniform was straight and her hair was perfect before exiting to only see Jay already dressed up, his hair actually combed back for once with… hair gel in it as well? Nya couldn't help but actually laugh at the sight… which only made the boy in front of her flush in embarrassment.

"What? Stop laughing at me."

"Really? You combed your hair back?"

"Well, yeah. I got to look presentable."

"Pfft, trust me. With that, all the girls will stay away from you," Nya teased as she began to pack her bag with the essentials she would be needing.

"What do you mean?"

"Girls like tousled hair. Bed hair," Nya replied, thinking about her preferences in guys.

"So why do you style your hair like that then?"

"Because I like to be different."

"Or look ridiculous."

"Hey, I'm not the one who have a hairstyle of a 'Momma's Boy'."

 **.::.**

Misako's Academy for Young Independent Women was a lot bigger than Wu's Academy for Boys, like five times bigger – then again, not all boys want to learn martial arts while the girls would want to get into any prestigious academic school. The school building stood tall underneath the clear sky, the sunlight slightly reflecting off the pristine beige bricks of the building. A massive garden surrounded the school, filled with exotic flora. It… It almost looked like a palace. Just… a much smaller version with not as exquisite architecture.

However, all the boys were currently in the gymnasium, sitting on bleachers on one side of the courts while girls were all on the other side in their uniforms which consisted of blue plaid skirts, white blouse and a grey blazer. In addition, they had grey high socks with black leather shoes. Unlike the grey training uniform, Wu's Academy was actually a somewhat darker version. They had a dark navy blue blazer with a white dress shirt underneath and dark blue tie. Then they had dark grey dress pants with black loafers.

Many of the girls were in clusters, giggling and staring at the boys while the boys winked and wave, trying to appear charming. Nya honestly rolled her eyes at the whole thing. It was utterly ridiculous. She was sitting next to Lloyd and Jay who were even winking and charmingly smiling at the girls. Nya looked down the bleaches to see Cole doing the same while Zane was reading out of a book. Looking to her left, she saw Dareth holding up a handheld mirror and combing his hair back.

Nya was glad that Jay actually ditched the whole neat hair profile and messed it up. He definitely looked a lot better… hotter actually.

 _Stop it, Nya! Jay's your roommate. He's barely even your friend._

 _But… It's still okay to appreciate one's appearance, right?_

 _Not continuously! It'd been approximately three months since you've been in this school. No more ogling at cute and hot guys; you were supposed to get that out of the way in your first week._

So, Nya sighed, sinking down in her seat with her arms folded over her chest.

"There she is!"

"Where?"

"How can you not see? Her hair is a dead giveaway!"

"I still can't see- oh, there."

Nya looked over to Jay and Lloyd who had craned their heads higher and following their line of vision, Nya saw that they were looking at a very pretty redhead.

The one thing that made her stand out the most was her flaming red hair which cascaded down to her back in soft waves and perfectly framed her heart-shaped face. From the far distance Nya was at, she could distinguish the girl's sharp facial features, strikingly defined jawline and high cheekbones. Despite sitting down, the girl seemed to be slightly taller than the average height and the uniform seemed to fit her slim figure perfectly… Making Nya a little jealous.

Yeah, Skylor was gorgeous. No wonder why the entire grade of thirty boys wanted to try and date her.

"Checking her out too, Kai?"

"Huh?" Nya asked as she looked to the two boys who were staring back at her.

"I think he was," Jay snickered before Lloyd shortly burst into laughter, making the girl narrow her eyes at them.

"I was not checking out Skylor."

"You were looking at her."

"I was just seeing what the whole fuss is about," Nya mumbled, rolling her eyes as the two boys continued to laugh. "She's attractive but I don't get why you guys obsess over her-"

"We do not obsess over her!" Jay quickly gasped.

"Ever since headmaster Wu announced that we were going here for our collaboration project, you two won't not shut up about her," Nya sighed. "It's annoying."

"Hmm… Kai, do you have a girlfriend back at home or something?"

"W-What?" Nya choked, not expecting that question from Lloyd.

"Just asking. You're not interested in any relationship whatsoever – whether that's with Dareth or trying to take out one of these girls."

"Kai in a relationship? I feel sorry for his girlfriend if he ever had one," Jay snorted, making Nya glare at him.

"I'm not in any relationship but I'm sure if I were to be in one, it would last much longer than any relationship you two could ever imagine yourselves into," Nya hotly retorted, resulting Jay to gasp while Lloyd laughed. "I'll forever feel sorry for any girl that wants to end up with either one of you."

"No girl can ever resist this charm," Jay cockily stated but Nya rolled her eyes, Lloyd laughing even harder.

"What charm?"

"This charming smile," Jay confidently stated as he looked over to her, blue eyes staring straight into her amber ones.

Then, he smiled; his lips stretched out to show his perfectly aligned teeth and faint dimples crinkled at the edge of his lips. Nya felt her heart skip a beat. There was just… something about the way that he smiled. Nya didn't know what but it made her nervous – nervous in the way that butterflies were trying to desperately escape from the pit of her stomach.

"So, still think I got no charm?" Jay asked, brow cocked and raised.

Nya nervously looked away, answering with a "no."

"Can I grab your attention," a voice suddenly called out. Nya immediately redirected her thoughts away from the same Jay had given her and to the woman that stood in the centre of the gymnasium with Wu and Garmadon on either side of her. It had to be Misako, the headmistress of this academy. "I like to officially welcome the students from Master Wu's Academy for Boys to our academy. As you're all aware, it has come to that time of year where your grade comes to work on a collaborative project with a student from the other academy. This year, your project is to write an elaborate and thoroughly detailed paper on the history of one of the martial arts."

"Awww man, I hate history," Jay grumbled.

"We are expecting ten thousand words and for the final paper to be submitted in six weeks' time," Wu next announced.

"Ten thousand words in six weeks? How are we supposed to fit that in with our training?" Lloyd sighed.

"But it's a collaborative project. We don't have to do ten thousand words ourselves," Nya reminded.

"Still…" Jay groaned as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "I guess we just have to cut our training shorter…"

"Let's announce the pairings: Gravis Allum with Chamille Davies. Cole Brookstone with Sally Packwood…"

"Have fun with her, Dirt Clog," Nya heard Jay mutter under his breath while Lloyd snorted.

"What's wrong with Sally?" The disguised girl asked, a small frown on her lips.

"She was my partner last year and she would not stop talking. I thought I talk a lot but she talks way more than me," Jay replied.

"Well I hope I'm not with Charlotte again. That girl was crushing way too hard on me last year," Lloyd shivered.

"… Lloyd Garmadon with Toxita Kayes."

"She must be new," Lloyd murmured.

"Nah, I know her. She's the one with the green hair. See? At the bottom row?"

"That's _her_?"

"Yup. Have fun with that," Jay snickered while Nya rolled her eyes.

"…Zane Julien with Pixal Borg."

"I'm actually not so surprised," Lloyd mused.

"Why?" Nya asked, looking to the two boys.

"Pixal is the adoptive daughter of Professor Borg."

"What? Really?"

"And Zane's father, Dr. Julien is also a professor in this academy for robotics."

"You're kidding."

"Nope," both boys chorused, emphasis on the 'p'.

"… Dareth Sandford with Abigail Watters. Kai Smith…"

Nya immediately perked up upon hearing her brother's and her alias' name. She looked over to Lloyd's mother whose eyes were attached to the long parchment in her hand.

"…with Skylor Chen."

" _What?!"_ She heard Lloyd and Jay gasp while Nya felt herself froze.

 _I'm with… Skylor? The girl that Jay and Lloyd were obsessing over? The girl that the whole grade actually wanted to date? The same girl I had just said earlier was… ugh. Just what I need._

Nya slightly scowled when all the boys on the bleachers turned to look at her, immediately signalling her out to Skylor's stare which Nya could easily feel from across the gymnasium. However, this didn't stop Misako from continuing on announcing the next pairs.

"Dude, you're so lucky," Jay groaned, stilling having yet to find out who he was going to be partnered with. "There's barely any decent girls left that haven't been paired up with anyone."

"Not all girls are bad," Nya hotly stated, narrowing her eyes at Jay. "Just because they aren't attractive doesn't mean that they have horrible personalities."

"Still doesn't hurt to have an attractive- ow! What the hell, Kai?" Jay hissed once Nya had reached over Lloyd (who was now snickering) and punched her roommate on the shoulder.

"Maybe that's why you haven't picked up Skylor yet since she knows you're going after the looks."

"I-I-I do not! I mean it's a bonus if they have looks- ow! Stop hitting me! Let me get my point across! I like a girl with intelligence who doesn't mind getting her hands dirty. Skylor fits that! Ow, you can actually hit really hard."

"It's called being pissed," Nya muttered, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Why don't you hit Lloyd too?"

"Hey, don't bring me into this!"

"I mean he wants Skylor too!"

"Jay, any louder? I don't think she have heard yet," Lloyd muttered sarcastically. "But you obsess over her more than me."

"I do not," Jay huffed.

"… Jay Walker with Cathy Pearson."

"Jay… Isn't that the girl who _really_ obsesses over you?" Lloyd asked.

"… Unfortunately."

 **.::.**

"So… You must be new."

After each student found their partners, the girls took the boys to different studying spots of the academy to get to know each other and to also start their project. Nya definitely did not miss the way the boys' (on the exceptions of Dareth) eyes practically glared at her as she followed Skylor out of the gymnasium.

But seeing Skylor even closer made Nya understand even more why Skylor was so wanted amongst the boys. Apart from her sharp jawline and high cheek bones, Skylor also was accompanied with a small nose, giving her sharply defined face a softer feature while her lips were had a natural paleness to them but the upper lip was thin while the bottom was more plump. Then there were her eyes. Nya had never seen grey eyes but Skylor had them; they were as grey as steel, bordered with thick lashes.

"Yeah… I only came three months ago," Nya said quietly, still keeping her voice low and deep.

The two were currently in the gardens. They were just in the library, lending old books and scrolls on Kenjutsu (since Skylor asked her which one they should do and Nya just said Kenjutsu since that was the one she knew the most) before anyone else could get them; but now, the two were underneath a large and shady oak tree where chords of light streamed through the vivid green leaves and created irregular patterns on the lush grass.

"That new, huh? How are you liking it?" The redhead nicely asked, voice clear and smooth as she had already opened a textbook.

"It's fine," Nya answered curtly.

Did guys talk differently to girls? Nya wasn't too sure. Back in Ignacia, she had never seen a guy-to-girl conversation. Of course, it was different for her interacting with other guys since she wasn't the typical girl. Nya had seen Kai flirt before but… yeah, Nya wasn't definitely not going to flirt with Skylor. That would be just too weird.

"Really? I thought you would find it difficult."

"How come?" Nya questioned as she looked to Skylor but, the girl immediately did not like the look that was on the redhead's face.

"Being a girl disguised as a guy isn't that easy."

Nya gasped. She couldn't believe it. She had gone for three months without being discovered or even setting off a slight suspicion among any of the boys. Heck, she sleeps in the same room as Jay and if anyone should be having suspicions, it should be him! Yet, less than ten minutes with this girl, she had managed to figure out Nya's biggest secret.

"I-I… I don't k-know what you're talking a-about," Nya pathetically said, trying to shake off Skylor's accusation but even Nya could tell her voice was anything but convincing.

"Hey, your secret is safe with me," Skylor ended up laughing while Nya looked away, feeling her heart pound in her chest.

Of all the months she had been on the run alone, no one had ever gave any suspicion of her being a girl in disguise and Nya wanted things to remain that way – it meant a less chance of her uncle finding where she was. If word gets out that a girl was impersonating her brother, Aidan was going to instantly know it was her and find her immediately.

"… How did you find out?" Nya asked, trying not to panic but she had to ask Skylor this. Did she slip up? Was her disguise not strong enough? Agh, how could she fix this?

"I'm observant. I'm guessing none of the boys got a slight suspicion?"

"None at all…"

"You disguise is good, don't get me wrong. I only figured it out when we were going through the library," Skylor simply stated before tilting her head in interest. "So… What's your real name?"

"… Nya," the girl softly said.

The name was oddly foreign on her tongue. When Cole, Lloyd and Jay were talking to her about 'Kai's sister', Nya only referred to herself as 'sister'. She never told them her real name. For the last nine months, Nya hadn't mentioned her own name in so long or heard anyone say it.

"Nya. Pretty name," Skylor said with a soft smile. "And I'm guessing Kai is… a relative? Brother?"

"Brother…" Nya quietly said, no longer bothering to keep her voice low.

"… He's dead, isn't he?"

"… I don't want to talk about it," Nya dismissively stated, sitting up straighter as she immediately grabbed a textbook and opened to any random page, trying to give the impression to Skylor that she didn't want to talk about it.

"I get it. Sorry, it's not my place to ask such personal questions but your secret is safe with me. I promise."

Nya turned her head to look at Skylor, her amber eyes peering into grey eyes… And in that moment, Nya just suddenly knew she could trust the redhead.

"Thanks."

 **Here you all are! Just like I'd promised, a much longer chapter! Unfortunately, the next six days I got work (insert groan), but fortunately, I already got the next chapter written up so once again, I'll be updating the same time next week! But massive thanks to: Jaell, Guest, RandomDragon2.0, MortalNinja, AuroraRain18, Just Someone Not Important, Natalie Singe, unknown, Cerenda and all my silent readers for supporting me!**

 **Jaell:** **Awww thanks! I'm feeling much better now which is also unfortunate since work wants me back T.T**

 **Guest:** **Thank you! You're too sweet. There are many other great writers here that are better than me xD**

 **MortalNinja:** **Thanks bro!**

 **AuroraRain18:** **Yes! Mulan is my favourite princess Disney movie too! But I gotta admit, they probably won't hook up until… chapter 12? But they'll start developing feelings soon! ;)**

 **Just Someone Not Important** **: Yeah, sorry about that, but my favourite thing is to leave readers in suspense and make them wait. It just makes the reveal so special since it's something that has been anticipated for so long.**

 **Natalie Singe:** **Star gazing is incredibly pretty! I've been a few years ago with my dad to take pictures (since he does photography as a hobby) but where I went with my friends was literally pitch dark, far from civilisation which made the stars' light seem so much brighter. And yes, we saw the milky way and even some nebulas! It was spectacular and something I would recommend to everyone!**

 **Cerenda:** **I got to admit, your username is so unique, I love it! Anyway, back to your review, I haven't actually decided if Dareth will find out if Nya is actually a girl. Obviously Jay will for obvious reasons and others (who I won't name for the sake of secrecy for my story ;) ) but I haven't thought about Dareth. And I actually live in Australia so it's winter here :)**

 **Once again, thank you to everyone for your lovely support. Feel free to leave a comment or PM me to talk about improvements or suggestions I could use to make this story more enjoyable for you to read! Until next time! Xoxo – ZaneLoverFan88**


	7. Chapter 7 - Enthralled

**Chapter 7  
Enthralled **

**.:Nya:.**

The only sound that filled the empty dojo was the repetitive sound of metal clashing against each other.

Nya's hands were firmly around the handle of the katana, right hand above the other. Her feet were constantly readjusting and shoulder-width apart while her amber eyes were locked on her blonde opponent and his katana. She carefully manoeuvred her sword so that the flat side of the blade always contacted with Lloyd's katana's flat side since it was extremely damaging to repeatedly clash swords by the edge – in other words, the sharp side.

The two were almost dancing around each other as they dodged and fought.

With additional training on ninjutsu-based swordsmanship from Garmadon, Lloyd and Jay; Nya found herself getting even better with her skills. Brad was right, she could utilise both kenjutsu and ninjutsu-based swordsmanship to increase her skills. She was now always trying to identify any open spots to get her opponent down quicker and she was quicker in her movements, but she still remained strong in her attacks and defence if her opponent was trying to use their weight against her.

Lloyd and Jay had tried experimenting in making her only use one sword in one hand… Yeah, that was a lot harder and she wasn't able to generate as much power into the attack as she would be with two hands… However, with one hand, she was able to get a lot more speed.

However, whenever she sparred with Lloyd in a sword dual, her strength and experience was her strength while his was speed – but her speed was still increasing! So believe it or not, most of the time, she actually beat Lloyd.

The same applied to now. Nya managed to hook her katana around Lloyd's blade and flicked it out of his hands before bringing the blade right to his throat.

"Better, you were much faster this time," Jay called from the side.

At the moment, it was just the three of them in the dojo. Brad's entire grade was in complete study mode for their massive literature exam on Monday. The other grades were studying; or, in Nya's grade, doing their part of their collaborative projects.

"Have you ever tried fighting with two swords?" Lloyd curiously asked. "Because samurais used to carry two swords around."

"Yeah but they weren't dual-blades," Nya informed. "So the katana is the primary weapon while the wakizashi is a shorter blade and is only used when the katana is lost and also used for close combat and seppuku suicide."

"A what-a-what-what?" Jay asked, brows furrowing. Nya rolled her eyes.

"Wakizashi," Nya repeated before walking over to the weapons on the display case – something that students are forbidden to touch… not that Nya was planning on touching it. "See that blade there? It's the same body shape as a katana but the blade is a lot shorter and the hilt is only long enough to fit one hand since it's a one-handed blade."

"How do you know so much about weapons?" Lloyd asked, the two boys now standing on either side of Nya, looking at the weapon display case.

"… My family runs a blacksmith store."

"Wait, so you can actually forge weapons as well?" Jay gasped. Nya just nodded. "That's wicked and cool. How come you never told us?"

"Because it never came up," Nya answered curtly as she turned away from the case and walked from the boys.

"Still… I think it'll be cool if you could fight with twin katanas," Lloyd called from the display case.

Nya frowned upon that. She remembered how Kai had once tried duelling her with twin katanas. She remembered how he complained the reason he lost to her was because trying to coordinate two katanas at once wasn't easy and only having one hand on the weapon didn't generate enough strength… although, that never stopped her brother from trying to train with them.

"The tournament is only two months away and our training time is already being cut. There's no point in me trying to learn how to fight with two swords. We may as well strengthen our other skillsets," Nya suggested.

"Wouldn't hurt to try, would it?" Jay asked. "Come, let's just do one spar – you and the twin katanas against me… Even though I suck at swords."

"… Fine," Nya huffed.

So, it didn't take long for her to have a pair of twin katanas in her hands. The craftsmanship of the katanas weren't that bad… however, she could tell that one blade was slightly thicker than the other. It could have passed as a sword that Kai made since he never had the patience or precision… unlike their father-

 _Enough Nya! Stop thinking of them. You're training for crying out loud!_

"Ready?" Jay asked.

The boy was stripped out of his shirt, his bare chest on display… and to be honest, it was a little distracting. However, Nya took noticed how he was uncomfortably holding his katana in one hand. Heck, she was super uncomfortable with two weapons!

"Okay, go," Lloyd called.

Jay wasted no time in heading straight in for the attack. If Nya thought Lloyd had speed before, it was nothing compared to Jay. Jay was fast, really fast. Apparently not as fast as Griffin Turner (who was on Cole's team) but on their own team, Jay was, by far the fastest. But, with great speed came lack of strength… strength Nya had to somehow exert into her attacks.

She immediately drew her right sword up to defend, her feet spreading wider to strengthen her stance. Once their katanas collided, Jay wasted no second in bringing his back to strike again, causing Nya to stay on the defence until she could see an opening.

"Kai, you got a left sword for a reason!" Lloyd shouted from the side.

"Ugh," Nya groaned before trying to incorporate her left arm.

 _Kai was right… This is so much harder!_

"Swords are an extension of your arm," Lloyd informed, sounding a lot like his father. "Think of a fist fight."

"Easier said than done!" Nya snapped before gasping as Jay's foot managed to slip between her legs and immediately, his foot hooked around her ankle and yanked, making her fall back.

A guttural groan escaped from her lips as her back hit the floor, the muscle suit rubbing uncomfortably against her scar. Nya glared upwards to see Jay smugly smiling at her.

"So… I won for once."

"Don't think that this will become a frequent occurrence," Nya grumbled as she sat up, throwing both swords to the ground in front of her. "It's just going to take me too long to try and fight with two katanas at once and then being able to fight well with them."

"Fine, fine," Lloyd resigned, lifting his hands up in surrender. "We won't force you to learn it."

"Good. Can I go now?" Nya asked with a huff.

"Yeah, go ahead."

 **.::.**

After a nice long shower, Nya immediately sat at her desk in the dorm and continued to work on her project. It had been about a week since the project had started. Ever since last week, Jay and Lloyd had been pestering her all about Skylor. Anyway, they would visit their sister school every Friday so both partners can converse about their project. Yesterday, Nya probably told Skylor way too much about herself. Already, the redhead knew her real name and the reason she was disguised as her brother. Skylor knew about her parents' death, her uncle's abuse which was the driving factor as to why she ran… until coming to Master Wu's Academy for Boys where Nya was confident her uncle would never look.

It was dangerous, Nya knew that. Heck, she told herself that so many times and even as she was talking to Skylor, she kept yelling at herself to stop… But she couldn't.

 _I guess it's just nice to talk to someone… To get all this weight off of my chest. I mean, Skylor's pretty trustworthy… And she's so kind, nice and understanding. She'd even dyed my hair._

Yeah, that was another problem. Because her hair was naturally black, over time, the roots of her hair would be black while the rest remained as the brown colour the sixteen-year-old had dyed it. Nya had used up the last her of chestnut hair dye a couple weeks back and Skylor -for some crazy and strange reason- just had a whole bunch of hair dye back in her dorm. It was a rule that boys weren't allowed to be anywhere near the girls' dorms but the two snuck in anyway. The shade Skylor dyed her hair was slightly a shade lighter than the dye Nya had been using but it was good enough. No one seemed to question it. Oh, Skylor also given her some extra supplies for her menstrual cycle.

Yeah, it was official: Skylor was pretty great.

However, Nya sighed as she leaned back in her chair, her hand already cramping from all the writing. Already, she had worked on this for a solid hour. She honestly thought Jay would be back by now because truth be told, it was a little lonely and too quiet in their dorm. When she had left training an hour and a half ago, the two boys stayed back to train more… Just how much more can those two train-?

Just on cue, the door opened and Nya looked over to see Jay walking in, covered in sweat. The uwagi (a Japanese kimono-like jacket specifically used for martial arts training) and shitabaki (Japanese pants specifically used for martial arts training) stuck to Jay's body like second skin while Jay's coppery hair had darkened to a dark brown.

"You stink," Nya commented as she leaned back in her chair, arms folded over her stomach and legs extended out.

Acting like a boy extended further than just looking like a boy, sounding like a boy, and responding and reacting how a boy would. No, it was also all about body language. Take walking as an example. Males tend to take larger strides and walk with their legs further apart which resulted them to walk in a sort of 'side-to-side' movement; hence why men are more prone to move their arms and shoulders when they walk. Females tend to take shorter strides and keep their legs closer which result to a more 'up-and-down' bobbing.

"You should smell yourself after you train," Jay snorted back, making Nya scowl. "That's why I keep tell you to take off your shirt – it just traps the sweat and the stench."

"Whatever, just go and take a shower," Nya grunted while Jay just gave out a good-natured laugh.

But, the girl's amber eyes caught sight of a small red line along the side of Jay's torso, slightly blended in with the sweat. _Hold up, is that blood?_

"You're bleeding," Nya called out before Jay could go into the bathroom.

"Huh?"

"Bleeding. You know, when blood escapes the body-"

"I know what bleeding is," Jay huffed as he scanned his arms and chest. "Where?"

"On your side."

Nya carefully watched as Jay lifted his right arm and looked down to look at the red line. He wasted no time before lifting up the hem of his shirt to reveal his side was smeared with blood and sweat but through it all, was a cut about five inches' long.

"What the hell?" Jay murmured in disbelief as he tenderly touched the skin above his cut before hissing and drawing his hand back in a flash. "I didn't feel a thing before-"

"Because you were still hyped up with adrenaline from training," Nya simply stated as she slowly leaned forward in her chair. "Doesn't look too deep for stitches."

"You know first aid?" Jay asked, surprised.

"I know enough. Go and take a shower. Just don't get soap in it."

"Errr… Shouldn't I get this tended to first?"

"And what? Remain sweaty and disgusting for the rest of the day? It's not like you're bleeding to death."

"True true… But what happens if I get soap in there? Will I make it worse?"

"No, you idiot. I mean you can if you want but it'll just hurt a lot. That's all."

"Oh… Right," Jay muttered before shaking his head, grabbing his towel, fresh clothes and then disappeared into the bathroom.

 _Looks like I'll be too distracted to keep working on this._ Nya thought with a slight frown but her hands immediately moved to pack her project and stationary away. It didn't take long for the sound of running water to reach her ears – but Nya tried to firmly ignore this as she moved to the kitchenette and under the sink where their first aid kit was located.

"OW!"

Nya tried to stiffen a laugh when she heard Jay yelped out – indicating to her that he must have succeeded in getting soap into his cut. Nya had done that plenty of times after her fair shares of minor injuries she acquire from training or… from her uncle.

After a couple minutes, the water stopped. It probably only took another minute until Jay was out of the bathroom, hot vapour pouring out of the room. Nya looked over and her stomach slightly churn at the sight of Jay in nothing but sweatpants, his hair damp and his chest having a sheen of moisture on it, accentuating the crevices and curves of the muscles underneath his skin.

 _I don't have a crush on him. I don't have a crush on him… I'm just a teenage girl with hormones who happen to be sharing a dorm with a really attractive cute guy with gorgeous abs…_

"Uhhh, the cut is all swollen… Should I be concerned?" Jay asked with a slight panic to his voice, snapping Nya out of her 'daydream' and reverting her back to the problem at hand.

"What, have you never got a cut before?"

"Nothing as big as this! A-And I rarely get them…"

"It's just swollen because you irritated it with soap."

"… You heard."

"Hard not to miss the girlish squeal," Nya teased, making Jay narrow his eyes at her.

"So should I be concerned?"

"No, it's fine," Nya said with a roll of her eyes before throwing the first aid kit at him. "There you are. Have fun."

"Y-You're not going to help me?"

"I'm sure you can apply ointment and bandage yourself up fine. I don't need to be your mother."

"Trust me, you're the opposite of my mother," Jay nervously chuckled before winching as he sat down onto his bed and opened the first aid kit.

Nya turned away, not wanting to keep staring at his naked upper body. So, she immediately swirled in her chair to her desk and pulled out a book – a book she had been struggling in reading with since last month.

"So… which ointment should I use?"

"Read the labelling," Nya simply replied as she opened the book to the fourth page. Yep, that was all she had managed to read in the last month.

"… So I guess the antibiotic ointment is the one to use?"

"Bingo."

"You're some big help."

"This isn't rocket science."

"I know; rocket science is much easier," Jay muttered. "Ummm…"

"What now?" Nya groaned as she closed the book.

"Should I be concerned if it's still bleeding."

"If it's a little bit, then no. It's fine. That's what the bandage is for."

"So would you consider this a little bit? Or a lot?"

With a sigh, Nya pushed her chair from the desk to turn and look at Jay's chest… before letting her eyes go over to the cut on his right side which was still bleeding at a considerable amount. Not a lot that it was concerning but it still got her up and heading towards Jay's bed to get a closer look – while adamantly ignoring the gorgeous array of muscles on his chest.

"So… How does it look, Doc?"

"Don't call me that," Nya immediately said, frowning but she gently probed the cut while ignoring Jay's hisses. "It's a little deeper than I thought… You won't die, unfortunately."

"Good to hear… Not the unfortunately part, of course- ow! Watch where you're poking your fingers!"

"Stop being such a baby."

"You try having a cut this big!"

"I had bigger," Nya said with a shrug.

"… You had?" Jay curiously asked, making Nya awfully aware of her slip up. _Ugh, quick! Come up with something!_

"I had my fair share of cuts while training for kenjutsu," Nya ended up saying. It wasn't a complete lie. She did get many cuts while training with her father and brother but the bigger and more severe cuts were from her uncle.

However, she pulled out a disposable cloth from the kit and pressed it against Jay's wound, making the boy yelp out and flinch away but from but she firmly pressed it against his body… but she couldn't help but be conscious of the warm heat that radiated from Jay's body and the tough muscle underneath her hand.

"Ow! What are you doing?"

"Applying pressure to stop the bleeding or even slow it down," Nya replied, trying to keep her voice low and keep the heat from rushing to her cheeks…

 _But how can I? The only other muscular chest I've touched was Kai's but he's my brother! Jay is… Jay! He's my roommate! My… friend?_

Nya mentally frowned upon that. Her early resolution to remain distant and not come close to anyone was completely obliterated when she joined Jay's and Lloyd's team. But… was she close enough to consider them as her friends?

 _Well… I already consider Skylor as a friend but that's because she knows who I actually am and why I'm here… And the fact that she had helped me out a couple times already. But Jay and Lloyd? They're nice. They helped me a lot in terms of training for the tournament and getting better in Master Garmadon's classes (who have actually noticed my improvements!). But can I call them my friends?_

And after some thinking…

 _I think I can._

"So… How long are you going to keep applying pressure?" Jay asked.

"Well, normally fifteen minutes but I reckon the cut will stop bleeding in a couple minutes," Nya replied quietly, lowering her face and gaze from Jay's face and to his injury.

Nya had been making sure to avoid getting close to people – not emotionally and mentally but physically! Reasons were that she didn't need them to notice the slight womanly look to her eyes, her nose and lips or even the feminine curl to her lashes. That was why she tried avoided being in close proximity with Dareth who wanted to be really close to her, and that was why whenever she was pinned down in a spar with either Brad, Lloyd or Jay, she would quickly shove them off before they could get a proper glimpse at her face.

As much as Nya secretly enjoyed being this close to Jay and his chest, she was equally as nervous.

 **.:Jay:.**

Jay could feel his heart beat and every single pound that it made in his chest. It echoed within his ears that it made the boy pray that Kai could not hear how hard his heart was pounding. Why the heck it was doing that would remain as a mystery to Jay. He wasn't nervous around Kai, nor was he guilty and keeping things from his roommate…

 _So why having Kai close to me is causing my chest to pound?_

Jay looked down to look at his roommate but he couldn't see more than Kai's hair which was mostly dry but messy and in… slight clumps? Jay wasn't sure if that was how to explain the state of Kai's hair but probably from the abuse of hair gel and the spiky hair style, Kai's hair had a natural tendency to remain in the segregated bundles.

But the blue-eyed boy was suddenly aware of Kai's soft and warm breath ghosting over the skin above his cut. It made the hairs on the back of Jay's neck rose and he tried everything to make sure that goosebumps didn't appear for Kai to see otherwise that would be downright embarrassing.

Soon, Kai removed the cloth from his cut before turning towards the first aid kit and rummaging it for some bandages. Jay leaned back discreetly to take another look at Kai's face. Starting to think about it, Kai had a somewhat… feminine quality to his face. It might be the slightly big eyes, the curled lashes and the slightly thick lips – other than that, Kai had sharp and strong jawline, tall and slightly broad nose and straight forehead.

Jay slightly hissed when his roommate used an antibacterial wipe to clean the slight smears of blood from around his wound. However, it did get Kai briefly looking up, showing Jay his eyes. His two, perfect orbs were a soft amber colour with specks of gold swirling within them. Along the edges, bronze shone but… not entirely brightly.

But Kai looked away, soon grabbing the antibiotic ointment and applying a thin layer of that onto Jay's wound. By now, Jay was a bit used to the sudden acute pains from whenever Kai would touch his wound so he didn't winch or hiss as Kai continued to apply the ointment with an odd softness Jay had never seen on the edgy boy.

"Hold this," Kai eventually instructed as he finished applying the ointment and started to press a gauze to Jay's torso – making the boy obey his word and hold it against his wound.

Soon, Kai started to wrap Jay up in bandages, his warm fingers always scrapping against Jay's skin. The muscles underneath immediately leapt, making Jay embarrassed but it seemed Kai didn't notice. _Good._

"Okay, all done," Kai announced as he placed a clip over the bandages but he went to look up by tilting his head up, resulting their faces to be mere inches apart.

For some strange and odd reason, Jay felt his breath get hitched in his throat. They were so close that Jay could just see the few, extremely faint freckles that dusted under Kai's eyes on his tanned skin. But, Kai's amber eyes stared into his own eyes… causing Jay to stare back.

Heat stirred within his churning stomach, his throat suddenly tight but thick with saliva, and his heart was pounding so much. It didn't help that Kai's hands were still resting over the bandages; Jay could feel the slight warmth of them through the bandages and to his skin. Something in the back of Jay's mind told him to lean forward and kiss those lips – after all, everybody would if they were ever this close to a pair of lips.

And slowly, he did lean in.

However, it all suddenly vanished; like a fire that was suddenly doused by icy water. Jay immediately pulled back, his hammering heart wasn't pounding in anticipation anymore but in fear.

 _Did I nearly kiss Kai? WHAT ON EARTH POSSESSED ME TO DO SUCH A THING?!_

"I-I just remembered I have to meet up with Lloyd!" Jay blurted quickly as he jumped to his feet, despite the pain that spiked in his side.

But Jay wasted no time in throwing on his shirt before bolting from the room… from Kai.

 **I honestly don't know how this chapter came to be. I honestly had one mindset as I was writing this chapter. I wanted it to go in a specific direction buuuuut, it turned out like this. I rather it happened later, after writing more scenes on Nya's and Jay's FRIENDSHIP but… I guess this would hurry my story along (since I do only aim for this to be less than twenty chapters long).**

 **BUT 13 REVIEWS?! You guys are sooooo amazing! Thank you so much for the support so I've decided to post this chapter early. Excuse the grammar mistakes though, I didn't get to properly proof-read it since I've been working all week T.T But massive thanks to: Natalie Singe, MasterofCupcakes, MortalNinja, RandomDragon2.0, Jaell, JSNI, unknown, Cerenda, Nia Kogane, Guest and all my silent readers!**

 **JSNI** **: Thanks for the abbreviation, it's definitely much quicker hahaha. And as for that 'Kai' and Skylor relationship, you just have to wait and see :)**

 **Cerenda** **: Well, considering that Nya admiring Jay's smile made your heart skip a bit, I hoped this chapter this didn't make it miss multiple beats or stop it (nervously laughs). But that's so cool that your username came from a fantasy story that you had written. And yeah, don't worry, I forget that everyone lives around the world too and have completely different time zones to me xD.**

 **Nia Kogane** **: You're Brazilian? That is so cool! I have never met a person from Brazil before – actually, it really overwhelms me that I have a reader from Brazil! And as you're your English, it's perfectly fine! I would love to learn a language but to be frankly honest, I'm horrible at it. I've tried learning Japanese, Thai and Russian and… it didn't work out so well. And is Kai really dead? I guess you have to wait to find out ;)**

 **Guest** **: No, there are plenty of good writers out there. Unfortunately, I haven't read their stories completely since I'm too busy to do so but ShinyShiny9, Astrid16, Illyria Lives, VelvetPersona and many others are such brilliant writers! So shout out to all of them! (** ** _CHECK THEIR STORIES OUT!_** **) But you've read my other stories? Ughhhh, some of them are so horrible! I tried to read my Secrets of the Water Ninja but gave up after three chapters.**

 **Sorry if I didn't get around to answering everyone's reviews. It's late at night, I'm exhausted, still sick and got work early in the morning (cries). But thank you all for supporting me! I'll try to have the next chapter up on Tuesday! Xoxo – ZaneLoverFan88**


	8. Chapter 8 - Ambivalent

**Chapter 8  
Ambivalent**

 **.:Lloyd:.**

Friendships were all about trusting each other, helping each other and simply being crazy together. Lloyd had many friends that had come and go, like the waves of the ocean; however, true friends stayed like an octopus on the face. But… Jay wasn't just an octopus. No, he was an annoying octopus that wouldn't let go. It wasn't that Lloyd was calling his friend clingy but he knew Jay would be that friend that would never go, no matter the circumstances… Although he could be annoying. Like right now.

Lloyd was just sitting alone in his dorm. He didn't have a roommate since he and Jay scared him off a couple months back. However, Lloyd was drying his hair with a towel when Jay just barged into his room, no knocking whatsoever! The blonde could have been naked! That already happened once last year. Not a fun story.

"Dude, have you heard of the thing called 'knocking'?" Lloyd asked as he rested the towel around his neck but his green eyes watched as Jay headed for the rug.

"I didn't invent it," Jay simply said before hastily pacing on the faded-green rug.

"Oh no. Not this again," Lloyd sighed.

Jay pacing on that poor rug was never a good sign. It often meant that his friend was either very stressed or panicked… And taking in the appearance of Jay and how his eyes were wide and his lips seeming to mumble words to himself, Lloyd knew it was the latter.

But what could possibly send Jay into a panic? Jay had only been stressing for the last few months – not panicking. In fact, the last time Jay panicked, it was because a snake had managed to find its way into his dorm. Lloyd was certain Kai would be able to get rid of the snake without panicking – after all, Kai said he wasn't scared of much things - he didn't like clowns or insect crawling all over him (he could handle a couple but he couldn't handle them climbing on him).

What else? It had to be a 'end-of-the-world' kind of panic because Jay's laboured breaths could be heard from where Lloyd was sitting on his bed.

 _Did the cafeteria announce that they aren't serving pudding cups anymore? Is it that Dareth now have a crush on Jay? Did Kai say something embarrassing to Skylor about Jay's crush on her? Ugh!_

"Okay, what happened?" Lloyd asked, unable to deduce anything.

"How do you know if you're gay?!" Jay squeaked, turning around to look at him.

 _I did not expect this._ Lloyd thought as he looked to his friend in shocked.

"Well, do you still have a crush on Skylor?"

"Yes!"

"Then you aren't gay. Maybe bi but not gay. Don't tell me you're suddenly realising you're having feelings for Dareth now-"

"Lloyd, stop trying to be funny! This is serious!"

"So what happened?" Lloyd asked again.

"I-I… I- er- I-"

"Spit it out."

"I NEARLY KISSED KAI!"

"Y-You kissed Kai?"

"Nearly!" Jay stressed before groaning and sitting on the rug.

"Okay, just tell me what happened; from the beginning," Lloyd calmly said as he got off the bed to kneel in front of his distressed friend.

"I walked in after training and he noticed that I got a cut on my torso so he instructed me to shower so we could tend to it- more like me and I tried to afterwards but I've never done anything like that before so he eventually came over and got really really close and next thing I know was that I was observing every little detail! Then after he was done, our faces were really close and I leaned in but pulled myself back before that could happen!" Jay ranted, face growing red as he spoke without taking a single breath of air.

"Did he lean in as well?" Lloyd asked.

"I-I don't know," Jay stated before groaning and throwing his face into his hands.

"Well… Do you like Kai?"

"As a friend obviously but n-not as in a-"

"Then you don't like him, that's it." The blonde concluded as he rested a hand on Jay's shoulder. "It was just a little accident. A spur of the moment. Maybe Kai didn't realise because if he saw you leaning in to kiss him, he would have decked you so hard."

"Y-Yeah… You're right," Jay murmured but even Lloyd could tell that his friend didn't sound so convinced.

"Look, if Kai brings it up, just state it was an accident or play it off that you have no idea what he's talking about."

"Okay…"

 **.:Nya:.**

Nya blinked a couple times, registering the fact that Jay was in front of her for one second and then gone the next… something about Lloyd needing him?

 _Jay will forever be Jay. Random and unpredictable at times._

However, maybe twenty minutes after Jay had ran out of their dorm, he returned and Nya did not miss the way that his blue eyes seemed to look everywhere but… her?

 _Oh no! What if he had realised I'm a girl? M-Maybe that's why he ran out! To tell Lloyd! Oh no… No no no no no!_

"S-So… Everything alright?" Nya asked, trying desperately to keep her voice levelled but low. If Jay had any suspicions that she was a girl, she needed to eliminate it. If she acted skittish now, it would only confirm his suspicions.

"Y-Yeah…" Jay nervously stated, not even bothering to level his voice. "Just needed to talk to Lloyd about your training."

"Oh."

 **.::.**

A week had passed and things were extremely awkward between her and Jay. The blue-eyed boy seemed to talk less whenever they were in their dorm. Even in training, it would be mostly Lloyd talking to her. But, the biggest thing Nya had noticed was that Jay tended to stare at her more often. Whenever she would catch him, he would quickly look away.

He was on her tail. He must be waiting for her to make any slipups about her possibly being a girl. Nya assumed that Lloyd probably didn't agree with Jay since the blonde is just the same as he had always been… And Jay must be waiting for harder evidence to use against her so he could finally convince Lloyd.

"I just don't know what to do to not make him so suspicious," Nya sighed as she and Skylor were once again under the massive oak tree in the gardens of Misako's Academy.

It was a fine day despite the last few days being nothing but a constant downpour. Outside had the sweet fragrance of freshly cut grass and the birds chattered in the trees. The sky was blue with just a few strands of clouds making their unhurried way towards the ocean. The sun was a ball of brightness from above. It was honestly a perfect day.

"Maybe do something that a guy would do and not a girl," Skylor tried to helpfully suggest but Nya just shook her head.

"Like what? It's not like I could take off my shirt to show off whatever abs I have."

"Maybe… Try to get kicked down there and crumple in pain?"

"No. There's an unspoken rule amongst all boys not to strike down there in training," Nya groaned as she laid on the grass, ignoring the project that currently needed her attention.

It was true, it seemed in training in either Sensei Garmadon's classes or just training with Jay, Lloyd and Brad, no boy would ever dare to land a blow or a kick down there. Not like such a place would cause Nya that much pain – she was a girl after all. However, a common place for the boys to strike was the chest… which caused Nya quite a bit of pain considering that her chest was constantly aching for being wrapped up so tightly.

"… I got an idea. It's crazy though."

"I'm all ears…"

"We could pretend to start dating. That'll surely get off any suspicions."

"WHAT?!" Nya gasped as she bolted up to look at the redhead but the girl only wore a serious expression. "You're not actually serious, right?"

"We're dealing with a very serious matter. Like you had said, we can't have word getting out that you're a girl and this would surely seal the deal that you are a boy," Skylor simply said as she shrugged her shoulders.

"But won't that seem suspicious too? According to Jay and Lloyd, you kept declining all the boys who wanted to date you."

"Because they're hormonal jerks looking for attractive girls. I mean do they know that 'Kai' doesn't just care for looks?"

"I think so...? Guys don't really talk about feelings."

"Well, if they know that 'Kai' values personality over looks, then they won't get suspicious that I take interest in you," Skylor stated, a small smile on her lips. "This may actually be fun."

"F-Fun? How would this be fun?" Nya asked, her voice going an octave higher in panic. "Acting like a boy is easy – I grew up surrounded by boys! But I have actually never seen how they… interact in a relationship!"

"That's fine," Skylor stated. "I can take charge. It's just a little bit of acting."

"I suck at acting."

"You've been acting as a boy for the last few months. I think that's pretty good."

"You still managed to figure me out."

"That's just me. You managed to fool an entire school of boys."

"But Jay," the sixteen-year-old girl sighed.

"Nya, you're going to be fine. Come, let's head to the library."

"Why? We already got all our books and resources. Plus, that's where Jay and Lloyd are."

"Exactly," Skylor grinned. "The sooner we prove that you're the boy, the sooner you'll stop stressing. Let's go!"

 **.::.**

Nya's body felt like it was reacting to a gorilla readying to beat the crap out of her instead of being faced with the very person who could potentially figure out part of her true identity. Nya had never been nervous to encounter boys. Never ever. Yet, her body was preparing for a marathon instead of going to sit with Lloyd and Jay and their partners. Somehow, she had to also act like she and Skylor had gotten together (even though this is their third time ever meeting) but Nya wasn't sure if she would be able to do that if her mind was in full on freak-out mode.

The Academy for Young Independent Women's library was slightly crowded with many pairs studying in there but it was still a sight to behold. There was row after row of neatly lined up books with their spines facing outward, colour coded with dots and each section arranged in alphabetical order. There were several floor cushions, comfortable leather arm chairs and tables for quiet study – only a couple seats were vacant. The hushed atmosphere was often punctured by the occasional laugh or the rapid clicking of students typing away at the computers for research.

Still, this mundane environment did nothing to ease Nya.

"Hey Cathy, hey Tox," Skylor brightly greeted as the two of them approached the table where the other two pairs were sitting at, their books spread out in front of them.

Nya felt incredibly nervous when Jay's and Lloyd's surprised eyes landed on them… Or more like just Nya. But the girl ignored them as she and Skylor moved towards one empty side of the square table.

"How come you're here?" Tox, a girl with very bright green hair and green eyes even brighter than Lloyd's, asked. She sounded completely bored as she sat leaned back in her chair.

"Kai and I decided to join you guys," Skylor stated as she suddenly grabbed Nya's hand and got them both to sit down… And Nya did not miss the way that Jay's and Lloyd's eyes widened upon that.

"Good, because Greenie over here is boring me to death," Tox simply stated as she turned her chair to face Skylor instead of Lloyd.

"Excuse me? Greenie? You're more green than me," Lloyd scoffed, as he placed his pen down.

"Whatever," Tox dismissively stated with a careless wave of her hand.

Somehow, the girls (minus Nya, of course) gathered to one side of the table to talk while Lloyd and Jay had all but grabbed Nya's wrists and pulled her towards them.

"Dude, what was that?!" Jay exclaimed in a whisper, his blue eyes briefly flickering towards the girls before landing back on Nya.

"What was what?" Nya asked indifferently, pulling her wrists back.

"Skylor grabbing your hand," Lloyd clarified.

"So…? Is that a crime?" The amber-eyed girl inquired with a small scoff at the end of her words, knowing she had to stay in character. Kai probably would proudly state that he's dating Skylor (since he too only flirt and go after girls with 'hot' appearances) but since Nya was portraying a slightly grouchy Kai, she knew she couldn't immediately announce that she and Skylor were 'together'.

"Are you two… together already?" Jay asked, eyes wide.

"What of it?"

"That quick?!"

"It had only been three weeks!"

"Dude, this is so unfair."

"Very unfair."

"What's your secret?"

"Yeah, what did you do?"

"I-I did nothing," Nya stammered, whacking her brain for answers. "Girls don't want to be treated as objects. She just saw that I wasn't interested in looks and she liked that."

"But you also said that you didn't like her," Jay frowned.

"Not really," Nya lied. "I mean, I didn't at first but… it just happened. Plus, she made the first move."

"She did?" Both boys gasped.

 _Why do I get the feeling this is only the beginning of the horde of questions that is to come?_

 **.:Jay:.**

Jay had to admit that he did try avoiding Kai for the last week but he had very good reasons as to why! He just needed the slight distance to remind himself that Kai is Kai. A hot-headed and grouchy boy who also happened to be _one_ of the most intelligent boys in their grade since Zane stole the title of most intelligent.

So hearing that Kai and Skylor were together was good in a way. It reminded Jay that Kai was very straight and he probably didn't notice the whole 'near-kiss' thing last week. Yet, it still left Jay a little bit sour. The energetic boy repetitively told himself that he was just jealous that Skylor ended up choosing Kai after knowing each other for only three weeks!

Jay tried so hard to concentrate on his part of the project… But he couldn't help but be distracted by whenever Skylor would lean in towards Kai, place a hand on his shoulder, and then whisper something into Kai's ear before giggling while he smirked. It was so unfair!

"Kai, I'm hungry. Let's go and grab something to eat," Skylor suddenly announced, drawing every single pair of eyes that surrounded the table as she tugged on Kai's arm.

"Sure, let's go," Kai simply shrugged.

Jay carefully watched (almost like a hawk) as Skylor quickly got out of her seat and continued to tug at Kai's arm as he took a little more time to get out of his seat. But once he was up, Skylor grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the exit of the library – probably to the cafeteria.

"So… I guess Kai ended up taking her," Lloyd wistfully sighed from Jay's side. "I forgot to ask, how are things between you and Kai?"

"Fine, I guess," Jay distractedly said, eyes still on the new couple. It was a little weird seeing them stand side to side since Skylor was a couple inches taller than Kai.

"Fine? You guys barely talk in training."

"Ugh, I'm kind of avoiding him and he must have caught on and given me some space. We're not talking about it… so I don't think he knows."

"That's good, right?" Jay nodded. "So why are you still avoiding him?"

"I dunno."

"Poor answer."

"I guess to not confuse myself," Jay admitted before glaring at Lloyd. "Don't you dare tell anyone about this."

"Have I told anyone anything that you had told me?"

"Brad."

"But not stuff like this."

"True…"

 **.::.**

"So… You and Skylor," Jay said as he pulled a shirt over his body while Kai walked out of the bathroom, already dressed in his plain red pyjamas.

"What about us?" His roommate asked as he went to his side of their dorm and packed his belongings back into his drawers… unlike Jay who got some of his stuff all over the dorm.

"I just surprised, is all."

"… Surprised why?" Kai asked, suspicion to his voice.

"I just thought you weren't into dating," Jay simply stated as he sat on his bed, continuing to watch his hot-headed roommate neatly rearrange his drawer. "So… Are you going to take her to the ball?"

"What ball?"

"The ball Lloyd and I mentioned a couple weeks ago. The one that's in a month where the two academies-"

"Oh. That. Probably," Kai uninterestedly answered.

That was another thing Jay realised when he and Kai ever had a conversation; the boy would always answer in vague statements or just seem completed uninterested in the matter! Jay could never have a long conversation with Kai – make that a long semi-personal conversation. If they were to talk about Kai's training or even school work, then Kai would talk longer and seem interested. Other than that, he stayed quiet about himself.

"Why 'probably'?" Jay urged, wanting to actually get a proper conversation out of Kai.

As soon as they got back to Wu's academy, the boys had dinner, their team had a meet up to discuss strategy for the tournament that was in two months as well as going through some riddles activity (since Headmaster Wu loved his riddles). But once Jay and Kai got into their dorm, the latter went to get ready for bed, leaving Jay to decide to stop avoiding Kai and make everything go back to normal… Well, not normal. Normal was still Kai being quiet and grumpy. No, Jay didn't want normal, he wanted them to actually be friends – close friends. Not this.

"Fine. Yes, I'll take her. Why are you asking me this?" Kai defensively asked, eyes slightly narrowing.

"Because I'm curious. Is it a crime to be curious?"

"It was curiosity that killed the cat."

"Well, lucky I'm no pussy," Jay hotly fired, making Kai snickered. _That's a first._ "Why is that amusing to you?"

"Have you seen yourself whenever you see a spider or whenever someone mentions a snake?" Kai asked, a teasing tone to his voice.

Jay, surprisingly, didn't find himself angry. Why should he be? Kai was snickering and teasing- sure he teased a lot but this was more in a friendly way than the sarcastic tease that he would normally do. This was a good sign! He and Kai were already making progress! Yes!

"I have to good reason to be scared of snakes."

"Really?"

"I thought Lloyd told you! I found a snake in my bed last year! That's enough to scare anyone."

"Did you get rid of it?"

"W-Well… no."

"Even if I had a snake in my bed, I would have got it out myself," Kai simply shrugged before moving over to the kitchenette to prepare himself some tea.

Ever since Jay had given Kai that cup of tea four weeks ago, Kai hadn't stopped taking it… And he didn't have another one of those nightmares. Jay had tried asking him one what did his nightmares consist of but the boy would change the topic quickly. Whatever it was, it had to be more than just the usual falling nightmares or those nightmares where you run but the corridor keeps getting longer and longer. Sometimes, Jay had nightmares of snakes or even talking skeletons! The worst one he ever had was his parents being trapped inside their little trailer in their junkyard which had caught on fire.

"So… you had snakes in your bed before?"

"In my room, not bed," Kai dismissively stated.

"So you must live close to a forest or something. I live… well… kind of in the middle of nowhere, near the desert," Jay vaguely informed, not wanting to tell Kai he lived in a junkyard. In fact, the only other student who knows that is Lloyd and… and Cole.

"I live on the eastern side of Ninjago," Kai revealed… Still vague though.

"Near mountain ranges?"

"Yeah… I guess you're in the Sea of Sand?"

"The south side of it," Jay shrugged as he laid back on his bed. "Do you miss your family?"

"Huh?" Kai asked, quite… shocked? _Then again, I did kind of ask it randomly._

"Well, we are at a boarding school where we only see our families on the holidays."

"Yeah… I miss them." Jay heard Kai quietly say.

"I miss my parents too. I'm an only child though, so I don't have any siblings to miss. What is it like to have a sister?"

"Better yet, why do you and Cole have this massive feud?"

 _There he does it again… Completely dodge the question. He doesn't even change it subtly!_

Truthfully, Jay really wanted to call Kai out on it… but he was afraid that if he did, Kai would completely close up on him and maybe won't talk to him again. Kai was usually grumpy… Jay would hate to see what Kai would be like when he was actually really angry.

"What do you know of it so far?" Jay ended up asking, as he sat back on his bed to see Kai leaning against the kitchenette, taking sips from his tea.

"That you and Cole fight and argue whenever you two are in close proximity. Apparently it started since you both had been enrolled in this school?"

"That's not true," Jay sighed. "Ugh… I hate to admit this but the two of us were actually really good friends when we started here-"

And upon that, he heard Kai completely choke into his tea, the liquid immediately spilt from the cup, onto the floor and somehow onto Kai's face. It was actually quite amusing that Jay would be rolling on the floor in laughter since he had never seen such a horrified look on Kai but… they were talking about Dirt Clog and that's enough to dampen anyone's mood.

"You two were _friends?_ " Kai gasped whilst resting the cup on the kitchenette bench and then using his sleeve to wipe his face.

"Close friends I hate to say," Jay grumbled.

"So… What happened?"

"Well… Everything was fine until the tournament. Us two, Zane and Lloyd were in the finals against a senior team-"

"Wait, all four of you were friends?"

"Not really. Cole and I were desperate for two others to join so… we just asked them despite that we didn't know them at the time – since Lloyd also kept quiet that he was the Headmaster's nephew and so on. After Cole's and my fallout, Zane became close friends with Cole and Lloyd became my close friend- anyway, we were in the finals where we had to do this massive obstacle course that required teamwork. Cole and I were desperate to win since we both really needed the scholarship."

Jay sighed as he once again laid back on his bed to stare at the ceiling, trying to ignore the pair of amber eyes that were staring attentively at him.

"We both came to a massive disagreement as to how we should approach one of the obstacles… Long story short, we couldn't agree on what to do and Cole went ahead with his own plan and messed up our whole chance of winning the tournament and the scholarship. We started to blame each other. I yelled I would have done better without him on the team so he said fine and… ever since, we just had more arguments… pushing insults onto each other's background. After a bad particular one, we just decided on being rivals… rivals who still keep going at each other to try and win that scholarship."

"… But you two still make it fair for the other teams."

"Well… Yeah. I mean we're the first newbie team to ever make it to the last five. We agreed to make it fair to others by having a newbie in our team and training them… I guess to also see who's the better teacher."

Jay exhaled deeply before finally climbing into bed, not wishing to talk about it anymore.

"It sucks to close someone close," Kai said softly, making Jay look over to the boy who suddenly found the ground between his feet interesting. "Although… I never had the… the friend that I've lost become my rival but it makes you miss the good old time when things were just normal and easy, huh?"

"Yeah… But if it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have had Lloyd as my best friend. _We_ probably wouldn't be friends."

"You think we're friends?" Kai questioned in a quiet voice, looking up.

"Well… We are, aren't we?" Jay asked as he turned over to face his roommate and propped his body up with his elbow.

"… Yeah, I guess we are."

 **Sorry for the rushed chapter. I'm back at university and I'm already under the pump with assignments – don't worry, I'll still update this weekend but I'm afraid I may have to cut back to an update per fortnight. Sorry guys. ANYWAY, I actually reference joshuad17's Map of Ninjago on Deviantart for all my locations across all my stories, so that's where I get that Ignacia is east near the mountain range and so on.**

 **And 13 reviews again?! You guys are literally the best! Massive thanks to Guest, Endeavor16, Jaell, daniaanlyn, Guest, MortalNinja, Natalie Singe, MasterofCupcakes, Nia Kogane, Cerenda, PrincessFoxSpaceNinja, RandomDragon2.0, unknown, JSNI and all my silent readers who continue to give their support!**

 **Jaell** **: Awwww, thanks! I plan to write a novel much later in life. Right now, I'm still planning bits of it :)**

 **daniaanlyn** ** _:_** **You're from South Africa? I didn't even know my story reached THAT far. But that's so cool!**

 **Once again, thank you all for you continuing support. I'm open to any ideas, criticism (especially harsh ones) or comments. I'll see you all sometime this weekend if I survive through this week. Xoxo – ZaneLoverFan88**


	9. Chapter 9 - Accede

**Chapter 9  
Accede**

 **.:Nya:.**

Three weeks had passed since the day that Nya began her fake relationship with Skylor… and since she had finally relented to accept Jay and Lloyd as her friends but would that mean she would ever tell them her actual identity? Of course not.

"Remind me… Why are we doing this?" Nya grunted as she struggled to remain upright.

Currently, she and Brad were forced to stand one-legged on a thin post about three-feet from the ground. While Brad was standing perfectly fine on the one leg, Nya was wobbly dangerously. She kept flailing her arms to try and regain her balance. She already slipped off twice and hit her left shin on the post. Yeah, that was excruciatingly painful.

"To improve your balance… which is utterly horrifying," Jay groaned from several metres in front of her, running a hand down his face while Lloyd stood to his side, arms folded over his chest.

"But didn't you say that some rounds need the whole team and others is just to nominate one person? Wouldn't b-balance be one of those solo things?" Nya asked with a strained voice, trying desperately not to fall this time.

"Who knows? We can't entirely predict what rounds our sensei's will choose for us or whether or not if they would be group rounds or solo rounds," Lloyd said with a simple shrug of his shoulders.

"Stop flailing around. That's why you're struggling. Just stand straight and centre your weight in the middle. Because you have your limbs everywhere, you're throwing your weight from where your centre gravity should be – which is the foot you're standing on," Jay instructed.

Nya tried. Like really tried. She ceased the flailing movement of her limbs and tried to 'centre' her weight to the middle but… long story short, she fell and bellyflopped onto the ground, igniting 'oofs' from her teammates.

"This is so stupid!" Nya growled in frustration as she got onto her knees.

"Kai, your balance seriously needs more improvement…" Jay sighed.

"And here I thought you would be great at it. I mean I can barely knock you over or make you lose your balance in our spars," Lloyd next sighed.

"Because I dispute my balance with both feet! Not one!" Nya shouted, throwing her arms in the air.

"Maybe we should just move on," Brad suggested. "They did quite a few balance rounds last year; I doubt that they're include a team balance round this year. What we should probably focus on is endurance – they only did one of those last year and Kai could also use improvement on that."

"Nah, Kai's endurance is good. He just overheats too quickly… which is weird considering his family owns a blacksmith store and he knows how to forge weapons, meaning constant exposure to furnaces," Lloyd commented.

Nya just mentally groaned and laid back on the damp grass.

"Nope, I couldn't really handle the heat in there either," Nya lied.

However, her endurance had definitely improved since her first training session with the team. She nearly died on that thirty-minute jog which was supposed to be warm-up. Now, it was easy – heck, they now run it and it was still easy. But it was still the fact that she was overheating herself with the muscle suit and the training uniform. Luckily, right now they were in autumn which meant it was getting cooler.

"Then just take off the shirt," Brad said but Nya shook her head. "Am I the only one that finds it odd that Kai doesn't even take off his shirt?"

 _Oh crap!_

"Yeah, it's pretty weird," Jay commented.

 _Think Nya! Think!_

"I-I can still hear you," Nya announced as she sat up, trying to kept the panic from creeping into her voice. If she made it that she was super defensive on the topic, they were definitely going to know something was up.

"We already established that we're not Dareth who would drool once he catches glimpse of a chest," Brad snickered with Jay quickly joining in, resulting Nya to glare at them.

"It's not that."

"Dude, why are you so scared to take off your shirt? This is actually a little ridiculous," Lloyd asked with a slight tilt of his head. "Jay, have you ever-"

"Nope."

 _Come on, Nya! Think! Use that big brain of yours and think! We can't use fatness as an excuse, we've been training intensively these last couple of months! Ahhhhh- wait._

"I just got some bad scars I don't want people staring at," Nya untruthfully explained.

She tried to keep her voice as level as possible and tried to sound calmed as she delivered that line… Although, the pace of her speech was slightly faster than normal but the boys didn't seem to pick up on it. Instead, Jay looked at her with concern, Lloyd with surprise and Brad with interest.

"Scars? From what?" Brad questioned – innocently asking, of course.

"Blacksmithing… I get reckless sometimes and accidentally burn myself."

"But wouldn't that be your hands you would burn?" Lloyd curiously asked.

"I… I walked backwards into my uncle who had just pulled a sword out of the furnace," Nya fibbed quietly as memories flashes before her eyes.

 _A searing shot of excruciating pain ran up her body. A scream escaped her lips, the devastating sound bouncing off the room of the forge. Pain seared through her shoulder as the smell of burning skin reached her nose._

"Is that why you grab your right shoulder?" Jay softly asked, making Nya widen her eyes.

 _Have… Have I been unconsciously grabbing my right shoulder? Ugh, good one Idiot!_

"Yeah… It's not the only one though," Nya continued to lie. "And I got a few cuts from kenjutsu as well."

"We won't judge you for the scars, you know," Lloyd said with a small -and what could be called comforting- smile.

"I just don't want pity. I don't want it. I don't need it."

 **.::.**

 _"Do you think I'll live, Doc?" Kai asked, his lips softly stretching into a smile but it didn't reach his amber eyes. They were lit with sadness; all the anger that Nya had seen was long gone. But she knew he was smiling for her, to try and reassure everything would be okay._

 _"It's hard to tell," Nya said, trying to smile as well but she felt like whatever curve was on her lips was quite pathetic. "You might make it."_

 _"Might? Geez, my sister can't even save my life," Kai jokingly chuckled – the gesture represented happiness and probably to anyone's ears but Nya knew her brother. It was a sad chuckle. Despite it all, he still tried to lighten her up._

 _"I had to perform heart surgery," Nya exaggerated, trying to keep up with the charade. "Consider yourself lucky."_

 _"That I will, Doc," Kai murmured before sighing and looking down to his arm where Nya had finished stitching the numerous of deep cuts that littered over his right forearm._

 _"… You need to stop this, Kai," the raven-haired girl whispered as she grabbed her brother's other arm. "Just stop arguing with him."_

 _"If it makes him leave you alone, then I'll keep doing it."_

 _"Don't," Nya insisted as she tugged on his arm, making her brother look to her. "Please, just don't. I can't lose you."_

 _"He's not going to kill me, Nya," Kai assured her, bringing his injured arm up to stroke the back of her head. "He needs me to keep running the shop. Plus… if I'm dead, word will spread amongst the village and they'll send him to prison. Then you won't have to deal with him… But he's smart enough not to draw attention to himself."_

 _"But I don't want to lose you," Nya exasperated. "Promise me, Kai. Promise me you'll stop."_

 _"You know I can't promise you that," Kai muttered sadly, momentarily closing his eyes. "You know I'll do anything to keep you safe."_

 _"But I don't want to lose you."_

 _"You're my little sister, Nya. It doesn't matter if you want me to or not, as your older brother I'm going to protect you… Mum and Dad would want you safe."_

 _"And they would want you safe too," she brokenly whispered, tears gathering in her eyes but Kai was quick to pull her into a tight hug._

 _"I can handle it. Don't worry. It's only for a couple more months, just until we can run. Okay?"_

 _"… Okay."_

"Errr… Nya, you're still in there?"

Nya was immediately snapped out of her memory and perked up when she heard her name called. For a split moment, she forgot where it was and it nearly caused her to panic until she saw Skylor's concerned face in front of her. Behind the redhead was the familiar garden that belonged to Misako's Academy for Young Independent Women.

"Sorry, I zoned out," Nya murmured quietly as she sat up.

"You were really zoned out then. I called your name a few times and you didn't react at all," Skylor said with a small frown upon her pale lips.

"Sorry," the girl sighed, apologising again but Skylor softly shook her head.

"Stop apologising. It's not your fault… It was about your brother, wasn't it?"

"Yeah…" Nya whispered as she looked away from Skylor.

Because she confessed to actually being burnt by a sword to Jay, Lloyd and Brad yesterday, she revisited that cruel memory last night – luckily, she didn't wake up Jay. But after waking to this morning, other memories wouldn't stop swarming Nya's mind. It wasn't just Skylor she had zoned out on. She even zoned out on Jay and Lloyd at breakfast and didn't even pay attention to their conversation on the way over to their sister school.

"… Talk to me about him," the redhead suggested gently.

"I can't," Nya brokenly whispered.

"You never talk about him. I'm sure if you talk to someone about him, you'll feel better."

"That's not true… I'd talked to him about our parents' death and I didn't feel particularly great afterwards."

"That's because you're probably dwelling on the painful memories of them, Nya. You should focus on the happy ones. Same applies with Kai."

"… You think he's dead," Nya whispered, the last word causing her chest to tighten in pain.

"Well… Is he?" Skylor softly asked as she reached a slender hand on Nya's broad shoulder.

"… You know, Kai said the same thing when our parents died," the shorter girl diverted, looking away from Skylor's face.

"Nya-"

"He told me I should remember them when they were at their happiest… it wouldn't be easy but I shouldn't let one imagine define them forever…"

Nya sighed as she looked down to her hands that rested upon her laps. She didn't hear a single sound from Skylor. It was just silent… apart from the chirping birds and the rustling leaves of the oak tree that loomed over them from the soft breeze.

"… He sounds wise," Skylor eventually whispered.

"When he wants to be," Nya murmured.

"Do you… do you have a picture of him?"

Nya only numbly nodded in response. She reached her hand into the pocket of her blazer and pulled out the photo of her and Kai from last year. She didn't look at it as she passed the photo to Skylor. The redhead said nothing, just gently taking the photo from her and remaining quiet.

"This was taken last year… Before our parents died," Nya whispered, eyes drifting over to where their completed project paper was resting on the grass.

"… I have to admit, he's really cute," Skylor softly said. "And you're really pretty."

"Jay, Lloyd and Cole called me hot…" Nya murmured, remembering how the boys had saw the picture.

"They had seen this?"

"Yeah. That's how Jay and Lloyd bribed me to join their team. I join their team in exchange that they both will stop talking about me."

"And they didn't realise the difference between Kai and… well, you right now?"

"I think they were too busy looking at 'me'," Nya sighed as she laid back onto the grass, looking up at the leaves of the great oak tree.

"You just… Well, you look like a scrawny version of your brother right now."

"Geez… Thanks."

"Shorter but you're right, the dye I used is a little too light," Skylor mused. Nya knew what she was trying to do. She was trying to lighten up their previous depressing conversation. "You would be fun for me to do a complete girl makeover."

"I know we're pretending to be a couple but that doesn't mean we're doing that 'girlfriend-applies- makeup-to-boyfriend' thing."

"But think how fun that would be. You get to be a girl again, even if it's for a moment."

"And once people see, they'll notice how 'Kai' looks more like a girl than a guy once he's wearing makeup."

"No one will see- wait!" Skylor suddenly exclaimed, her face lighting up while her eyes twinkled with mischief. Nya immediately did not like that look. "What did you tell the boys about you?"

"Me as in-?"

"As in Nya."

"They just know that this girl here," Nya said as she pointed to herself in the picture, "is Kai's sister and that by Kai, she's absolutely off limits."

"They don't even your name?"

"No."

"And as far as they know, your parents and your 'sister' is alive?"

"Yeah…? Skylor, what are you planning? You're scaring me," Nya worriedly whispered as she sat up.

"Remember that ball that's happening next week?"

And suddenly, it clicked in Nya's mind.

"No. No no _no_! I can't be two people at once!" Nya exclaimed in a whisper while Skylor broke out into a determined grin.

"You won't. You'll just go as Nya."

"But what about Kai? He's your date!"

"Just say he got a stomach bug and can't make it. Once every boy leaves, you rush over and sneak into my dorm where I can give you a complete makeover."

"No! This is a terrible idea!"

"Actually, starting to think of it, this is the safest idea."

"Safe? How is this safe?"

"This is a ball, Nya. Everyone is going to be taking pictures and where do students like to post pictures?"

"On social media," Nya gasped, eyes widening. "An even better reason why I shouldn't go as me."

"Nya, if your uncle sees you impersonating your brother and that this is a ball for Master Wu's Academy for Boys, where is he going to go?"

"But if it's me, me as in Nya-"

"Then he thinks you're here," Skylor continued. "But once he sees you're not here, he's probably going to think you're going to do your hardest to run far from here."

"So, theoretically speaking, if I were to go as… me, I'll only stay by your side. Once he sees pictures of us two, he's going to talk to you!"

"And I'll tell him that you were a temporary student whose last day happened to be on the ball and you mentioned heading to Stiix. Problem solve. That way, it drives him away from here," Skylor explained before taking Nya's hand into her own.

"But I'm not an actual student at your school. Wouldn't I be caught out?"

"I doubt it. There's going to be a lot of girls and boys of all grades. I'm sure you're safe."

"But Jay, Lloyd, Cole and Zane know what 'Nya' looks like," Nya continued. "They're going to bother me the whole night!"

"I'm a pro at brushing off boys. Stick with me and you'll be fine," the redhead assured her… but it still didn't ease Nya.

"Maybe I'll just say I have a stomach bug and skip the whole night-"

"Nya, don't do that. You need to relax and have fun. If your uncle sees you as you and we give him the misleading lead, then you don't have to worry about him finding you anytime soon."

"This is a massive risk," Nya frowned.

"It's not massive. Otherwise, I'll look lonely on the night since all my friends got dates," Skylor sighed.

"Don't play the guilt card on me."

"Look, I just think you need to relax and be you for once. Plus, this whole uncle business is considering someone posts a picture of you and _if_ your uncle happens to find the picture. You told me he's a drunk and your village is pretty old, not many have modern technology."

"Regardless, he won't be at Ignacia. He's actually out there looking for me…"

"Live a little, Nya."

"… But I don't have a dress. Heck, I don't even have a tux or anything."

"Leave the dress and wigs to me."

"What the heck is in your dorm? You got hair dye and apparently extra dresses and wigs? Where do you get the money for this?"

"My father's rich. He's the owner of Chen's Noodles."

"No way."

"Yes way. He sent me here so I can learn the history and business academia but I want to do fashion or something to do with styling later on. So you'll be helping me plenty. Please, Nya."

"… What if the boys recognise me? I mean what if Jay, Lloyd, Cole and Zane recognise me as Kai's sister? What then?"

"Just say that you are Kai's sister and you go here but in a lower grade and Kai never said it because he didn't want them to go looking for you while they're here supposedly 'studying'. Problem solve."

"But Kai and I will be the same height… In the picture, he's obviously taller than me."

"… Just say you're wearing heels."

"I won't actually be wearing heels, will I?"

"No. Maybe one inch? But I have this nice red dress that goes to the floor so it'll cover up your feet."

"You're a lot taller than me."

"It's called alterations… Come, let's sneak into my dorm."

"What for?"

"To try on the dress."

"I haven't even agreed to this!"

"But you are mentally relenting, aren't you?" Skylor teased while Nya scowled.

"… Yeah."

"Great! Let's go. We already finish our project and its due next week."

"But the last time -and only time!- I snuck into your dorm, I nearly got caught."

" _Nearly_. This time, we'll be more careful."

"… And why do I need to try on the dress now?"

"So I can make alterations! Otherwise I won't have that much time. I only got just over a week to have this ready for you."

 **I'm sooooo sorry for the long wait. University have been a massive pain in the butt and also the fact that I'm climbing ladders at my part-time job so my managers are now calling me in to work whenever they're low on staff. Like this week I've worked 25+ hours. Sure the money is nice and all but I'm sooooo exhausted! And sorry for the incredibly short chapter but I needed it to end here! And I also apologise if towards the end it was just a rushed mess.**

 **But massive thanks to: Jaell, RandomDragon2.0, Natalie Singe, JSNI, unknown, MortalNinja, Guest, RebelutionaryWrites, Joel, Cerenda, Beatitude Girl and all my silent readers! I'm so sorry I can't really reply to any of the reviews today since I'm utterly exhausted (I've been running on 4-6 hours of sleep for the last two weeks) but thank you all for the support!**

 **I may update in two weeks since uni is still chaotic but I promise I'll come back with a bang. Why? Nya goes to the ball undercover as herself! Until then! Xoxo – ZaneLoverFan88**


	10. Chapter 10 - Elude

**Chapter 10  
Elude**

 **.:Nya:.**

 _"Nya, wake up. Come on, wake up!"_

 _Nya woke up faster than a cat in ice-water. Her whole body jolted awake as her heart immediately pounded, as if a hypodermic kind of adrenaline had been emptied into her bloodstream. Her eyes opened, instantly on alert but she was surprised to see Kai standing above her._

 _"Kai-"_

 _"We got to go, right now."_

 _"R-Right now?" Nya stammered, eyes wide as she sat up in bed._

 _Her amber eyes immediately took in Kai's panicked and rushed appearance. His hair was still a tousled mess, his jacket was inside out and the rucksack on his back wasn't even closed properly._

 _"Yes now," Kai whispered, head quickly looking over his shoulder, towards her bedroom door before looking back to her. "Get changed, grab whatever you need- only the essentials."_

 _"But food-"_

 _"I got all of that in mine already. I need to get you out now."_

 _"B-But-"_

 _"Please, Nya. We need to leave. Now," Kai urged, his amber eyes penetrating deeply into her own. They were so full of worry and… and fear. That, itself, scared Nya._

 _So she nodded, watching a small flicker of relief flooding onto her brother's face until he whispered he would wait outside of her bedroom. It didn't take long for Nya to leap out of bed and hastily change into warm clothes and stuffing an old bag with clothes and other essentials. She was just about to exit her room when she paused, her eyes catching the photo frames sitting upon her dresser._

 _"Nya, we don't have much time left!" Kai hissed from her door._

 _"Okay, I'm coming!" Nya whispered, quickly grabbing the photo of their family a few years ago and a photo of her and Kai, a couple months before their parents had passed._

 _Once she had exited her room, her bag was already over her shoulder but Kai quickly grabbed her wrist and pulled her towards the stairs. She asked no questions, fearing that if their uncle was in the house, he could hear them and stop them from escaping… and punish them for even attempting it._

 _When they got to the stairs that separated the house to the shop, Kai descended first… but slowly. His hand still had a warm iron grip on her wrist but his feet only fell on the side of the steps closest to the wall – where they don't creak the most. He had his back to the wall, his rucksack barely millimetres away from the wooden walls; however, Nya noticed how his eyes were scanning the shop below… as if suspecting danger to leap out at any second._

 _Nya followed him, keeping her back to the wall but trying to keep her bag away from the wall to avoid making sound as well. Her feet tried to keep to edge of the steps, to avoid any creaks. However, the girl froze when one of the steps groaned and creaked from the weight. She felt Kai completely stiffen and she looked to his right foot, knowing the sound originated from it._

 _The two stayed silent. Not a single sound was heard. Not even their breaths. All they could hear were the crickets and the wind outside. Then, after a few seconds, they heard the faint ruffling of sheets, like someone rolling over in bed._

 _That one sound made pure fear surge through her body, in her veins. It made her feel like icy daggers were plunging into her chest. The fear she'd felt when Aidan gave her that scar on her shoulder was nothing compared to how she felt right now. Why? Because she knew that if they were to get caught, the consequences that would follow after would be dire. Not even dire. They would be catastrophic._

 _Nya looked to her brother, noticing his eyes were worriedly on her while the colour was drained from his face. Soon, he raised his right hand -the one that didn't have a tight grip on her wrist- and held a single finger to his lips. Such a gesture was stupid to Nya, knowing fully well that she had to be silent. Yet, many seconds passed and no sound was made afterwards. It made her exhale the long breath she didn't know she had been holding._

 _They then continued to the bottom of the stairs, with no other sounds made. However, Kai gently nudged her in front of him and to the door. She gave him a questioning look but he let go of her hand and disappeared deep into the store. Nya gulped but she continued to the front door and tried to open it as quietly as she could. Fortunately for her, it did._

 _Once she was outside, the cool night breeze immediately caressed her body and stirred the leaves that had fallen from the trees. She turned around anxiously, waiting for her brother. It only took a minute until he did so, two katanas between his back and his bag._

 _"Let's go," he whispered as he quickly took her hand and marched straight from their home._

 _"Why now? I thought we were going to wait for another two weeks," Nya whispered, matching Kai's larger strides._

 _"… He threatened to kill you," Kai hissed through clench teeth, his hand tightening around hers._

 _"H-He what?"_

 _"Like I'd said, I won't let that ever happen to you. I'd promised to protect you and that's what I'm going to do. Now all I want is to put distance between us and that hellhole."_

Nya didn't know whether or not if that little blacksmith shop and house was actually a hellhole or if it was still her home… Until she had run away with Kai, Nya had never lived somewhere else. For over a decade, that house and shop had been her home… The home where all the happiness was; where Nya was so happy and she lived with her parents and her brother. After their parents' death… that was when it became the 'hellhole' that Kai had so colourfully named it. That little blacksmith and house had suddenly became a beacon of nightmares where Aidan would hurt her or her brother.

But… That was only for less than a year. So, should that little blacksmith and house still be considered home since it had been her home for more than a decade, or a 'hellhole' just because that was what it was when she left it?

Nya just sighed as she continued to look in the mirror as Skylor was behind her, her hands working over Nya's right shoulder where the scar was. Nya couldn't remember the last time she was in a dress, but all she knew was that she didn't look like Kai at all.

No, without the muscle suit and the baggy clothes, Nya couldn't believe how feminine her body looked. Sure her shoulders were slightly broader than the average female's and her arms were toned with muscle, but the curve from _her_ shoulders and to her neck had that feminine suppleness.

The ruby red dress that Skylor had altered to her size really accentuated all of her feminine curves.

The slim fitting dress really highlighted the dip of her waist and the flare of her hips that she had been trying to hide for the last year. The dress had a slight V-neckline, relieving the top of the cleavage Nya had painfully kept wrapped. The off-shoulder sleeves were only an inch and a half thick and the back also had a V-shape… exposing the scar that Skylor was currently trying to conceal.

The dress kept snug to her body until under the curve of her small butt where it then flared out in the mermaid-skirt style. It wasn't a massive flare but it did have a bit of a train. It was much longer before and Skylor originally wanted to keep it at the massive length but Nya managed to convince her to make it shorter.

Body-wise, no one would ever be able to recognise her as the Kai she had be pretending to be. Facial-wise? Nya was sure people could recognise _some_ resemblance but not to say that she looked _exactly_ like Kai.

Her short chestnut hair had been pinned back and hidden underneath the raven-haired wig that Skylor had in her massive dorm. It surprised Nya at how natural the hair and the scalp of the wig looked. The hair fell to her mid-back in slight curls at the bottom. Skylor had tried curling it but apparently the hair of the wig just didn't want to stay in the curls. _Then,_ there was the face.

Nya never had makeup on. She had no interest for that in Ignacia and she obviously didn't have to money for it when she was on the run. So seeing her face looking so… _feminine_ utterly terrified Nya when Skylor finally allowed her to look in the mirror. Apparently, Skylor had done 'contouring' to make her cheekbones sharper, nose thin and jaw sharp in a feminine way. Her lips were a pale pink since Skylor didn't want to over-do it on the red.

Then there was the eye makeup… Apparently consisting of things called eye shadow, massacre and… some other things that Nya forgot were called. Nya, once again, managed to convince Skylor not do a lot to her eyes, so she had slight natural colouring to her eye lids, some kind of line drawn by a pencil and a pair of fake lashes.

To herself, Nya looked like a whole completely different person. Like… A much prettier and _girly_ version of herself just before her parents had died. Nothing like the somewhat masculine appearance Nya had been pulling off.

"You are honestly my best piece of art ever," Skylor proudly stated from behind her, pulling away from her shoulder. "Your scar is pretty much invisible and the makeup I've used shouldn't smudge at all."

"… I just look so different," Nya frowned as she lifted one of her hands to brush one of the long strands of hair from her face and over her shoulder.

 _I forgot how annoying long hair was…_

"But pretty," Skylor grinned as she placed the makeup down and vanished into her bathroom, no doubt to change into her own dress.

Nya practically ran from Wu's academy to Skylor's dorm, ten minutes after the boys had left. By the time she got to the girl's room, the redhead already had her flaming hair in an elaborate up-do that Nya had no idea how Skylor managed to do it herself and her face already done in makeup but she was only in her dressing robe – claiming it would be easier to do Nya's hair and makeup in it than her dress.

"I still don't like it," Nya concluded as she looked to the reflection.

She didn't like it for many reasons. It reminded her too much of her old self and all the bittersweet memories that were attached to it. She didn't like it for how girly it had transformed her to. She didn't like it because… because she knew that if her parents could see her now, her mother would be crying over how beautiful and grownup she had come to be. Her father would be smiling proud, complimenting on how far she had come to be an independent, young and probably beautiful woman.

And Kai… Kai would be grinning like an idiot, teasing her for looking so girly. She would probably agree and complain about the slight itchiness of the makeup or the slight fear of breaking her ankle in a shoe that was slightly off the ground… But nevertheless, he would say she looked pretty and insisted on being her date so no other guy would touch her.

Nya lifted her hands to lightly dab at the tears that gathered in her eyes, not wanting to summon the wrath of Skylor if she ever found out that Nya had smudged the makeup.

"Whether you like it or not, I do and no doubt you're going to get asked by so many guys for a dance," Skylor called from the bathroom.

"But I thought you said I won't be dancing as long as I stay by your side," Nya frowned, dabbing away at the last tear before dropping her hands and slowly pacing the room.

"Doesn't mean it'll stop you from being asked. Stop worrying."

"How can I _not_ worry?"

"Like we had discussed many times, if your uncle comes looking for you here and tries questioning me, I'll lead him away. He'll have no idea you're parading as Kai-"

"That bit I'm not so worried about anymore," Nya quietly confessed, having finally seeing the logic in Skylor's plan for her to go to this ball as herself.

"Oh, you're not?"

"No. What I'm worried about is Jay, Lloyd and Cole!" Nya groaned before momentarily losing balance in the one-inch heel but managed to catch her balance before she could damage anything.

"Who knows, they might not recognise you. You told me yourself that Cole and his friend, Zane, hadn't even talked to you since you've joined Jay's and Lloyd's team. So he had probably forgotten about 'Nya'. Jay and Lloyd? They might recognise you as Nya and will probably say hi and-"

"But I don't want them to say hi to me!"

"Too bad because they're going to since you're their friend's sister! Plus, as far as 'Nya' knows, her brother is still supposed to be going to this ball as her friend's date. So when you do see them, ask about Kai and it'll cancel out any lasting suspicion Jay have over you."

"What if I slip up? What if I say something that 'Kai' should only know?"

"Say that you have been in touch with him and he told you stuff. Problem solved," Skylor simply answered before she walked out of the bathroom.

Her low-back dress was a tiger orange colour. From the waist above, it had jewels and rhinestones encrusted onto the slightly revealing halter neck while the silky skirt flowed to the floor. The dress really accentuated Skylor's very feminine figure. She already seemed much taller, having put on her heels inside the bathroom.

"Ready to go?"

"… Can I pass? I think I'm going to be sick…"

"No! I'm not wasting the last half an hour so you can pike out," Skylor declared as she confidently marched forward in her heels and grabbed Nya by the arm.

 **.::.**

This. Was. A. _Terrible_. Idea.

Nya had never felt so uncomfortable in her entire life. She thought dressing up like this would be the worst of it, boy, was she wrong. No, the worst was the amount of boys flocking Skylor seeing how her 'date' was non-existent at the moment. Once they would get rejected by Skylor, they would then turn to her and ask for a dance! The only times that Nya had danced was with her father and brother and that wasn't even properly dancing! With her father, she was standing on his feet while Kai was just spinning them around in circles and stepping on her feet.

"Is it over yet?" Nya groaned as she stayed tight to Skylor's side.

The ballroom was massive; massive enough to accommodate all students and staff of both academies. Six massive chandeliers swept across the roof, their lights filtering through the crystals and filling up the entire room with a soft light. The large windows and doors to the veranda were draped in red velvet, their ends barely gazing against the marble floor that stretched for the entire room.

However, Nya stuck to Skylor's side like glue, not wanting to get lost in the sea of students. The majority were girls considering that Misako's Academy for Independent Young Women have triple the amount of students Wu's Academy had – so why was every boy just keen on asking Skylor? Nya had no idea whatsoever.

"I'm afraid not," Skylor chuckled.

"And to think you endure this every year… Don't you get sick of it?"

"I'm used to it. Maybe next year I'll be sick of it. Who knows? But you're definitely making this more fun for me."

"Ugh…" Nya muttered while she heard her redhead friend laughed. "Let me guess, because they're asking me too?"

"That and it's funny seeing you get so flustered when they ask."

"Because some of them I actually know!" Nya groaned as her amber eyes looked around, trying to spot if someone else was coming to them. "Do these boys ever ask your friends whenever you are with them?"

"Difference between you and them is that they already have dates. You don't."

"This sucks…"

"Oooh, incoming. Cole and Zane."

"What?" Nya squeaked as she tried to look over the sea of bodies and she immediately spotted Zane's pale blonde hair. "Let's go."

"Why?"

"Because Cole's not going to stop talking to me!"

"They're just going to chase us and knows something up when we're avoiding them," Skylor gently said as she nudged her elbow into Nya's side. "Just talk to him and say you're not interested, then he'll leave you alone forever and won't ask about you again in the future."

"No, I just can't," Nya tried reasoning, feeling her stomach churn violently.

"Too bad, they're already here-"

"Skylor!" Cole's robust voice exclaimed as he and Zane appeared through the bodies and Nya honestly thought she was about to hurl.

 _This is officially the worst bit of the night._

"Why if it isn't two of my favourite boys from Wu's," Skylor immediately greeted, her red lips stretching into a smile.

Nya couldn't help but step behind Skylor as the two boys were finally in front of them. For some strange reason, it didn't surprise Nya to see that Cole was wearing a purely charcoal black tuxedo with a grey dress shirt underneath while Zane wore a sharp white suit.

"And I must say, you look absolutely stunning," Cole smoothly stated, a charming grin pulling at his lips.

"Thank you. And I must say, you definitely took it a step up from last year," Skylor responded politely; however, Nya could barely focus attention on that.

No, she was staring at the side, purposely avoiding Zane's gaze that stayed on her. Not Skylor. Her. And he didn't even do it subtly! He was just staring at her! Didn't Skylor say that his date was Pixal? So where was she? Ugh!

"You're Kai's sister, aren't you?" Zane's cool voice asked, cutting like a sharp blade through Skylor's and Cole's conservation. Immediately, Nya felt their eyes upon her.

 _Say something! Anything!_

"Y-You know Kai?" Nya stammered, her stomach threatening to hurl up her afternoon tea.

"Yeah, we know him," Cole distantly said as his eyes seemed to take in every detail of her. "He mentioned you once."

"More like Cole saw a picture of you two together," Zane truthfully added.

"Well… He made no mentions of either of you," Nya hotly stated back, hoping they would just leave!

"Yep, definitely Kai's sister," Cole chuckled while Nya couldn't help but scowl, annoyance filtering out the anxiety that had occupied her earlier. "Can I get your name?"

"… It's Nya," Nya quietly confessed, after a hard nudge in the ribs from Skylor.

"Well, Nya," Cole said with a that same charming smile he had shown to Skylor, "Can I have a dance?"

"Errr… No," Nya quickly answered. "Skylor and I are about to get some drinks. Bye!"

"W-Wait, Nya!" But the raven-haired girl quickly grabbed her friend and pulled her towards where the drinks station was, shoving her way through other students. "Nya, just stop!"

"Ugh, that was humiliating! The last thing I want to do is bump into-"

 _Oof!_

Before she knew it, she had completely collided into someone. Judging from the hardness of the body she had hit, she knew it was a boy – the last thing Nya wanted to ever collide into. However, Nya began to panic when she felt herself falling backwards, and being in the dress and the shoes she was currently wearing, she had completely lost her balance.

But, as quick as she was falling, a pair of arms quickly wrapped around her waist, preventing her from actually hitting the floor and making a massive fool of herself. But as Nya opened her eyes she had previously closed from before, she was immediately captivated by the eyes of her saviour.

Surrounding the black of his pupil, was a thin ring of jaggered cerulean completely swallowed by electric blue, but not in the recurrent way the phrase 'electric' was used. No, they were the perfect shade of electric blue; striking yet soft. It wasn't striking like the electric shook that paralysed the body or the shock that crawled under the muscles. No, it was the kind that made Nya's blood wanting to dance. Someone should really name a crayon after this guy's eyes-

"Hey, I know you."

 _And I know that voice!_

Nya stopped focusing on the eyes and she gasped to notice that _one_ person she didn't want to bump into, she had literally bumped into!

"A-A-A…" Nya stammered, her mouth unable to form any coherent word.

"You're Kai's sister, aren't you?" He asked with a slight tilt of his head, a small smile on his lips as his eyes twinkles in recognition.

"Nya, are you okay?" Skylor's voice asked, suddenly grounding Nya's mind to reality… And the position she and Jay was in.

The girl immediately got out of Jay's arms, immediately yelling at herself to forget the way Jay's arms felt around her waist! Whenever Jay touch her as Kai, it was mostly shoulder pats and it would never be Nya's shoulders but the muscle suit… So feeling his actual touch sent this weird feeling down her spine… It was almost like get a slight electric shock except this was much more pleasant-

 _Ah! Nya! Stop it!_

"I'm fine," Nya immediately told Skylor, turning her back to Jay and no doubt Lloyd who was coming up.

"Skylor, there you are!" Jay suddenly exclaimed, attracting both girls' attention.

Just like how Nya remembered from when Jay exited their dorm, he was wearing a bit of a more older tux with a white undershirt and a blue tie which really suited his eyes - _ENOUGH NYA!-_ and his hair slightly damp with a bit of Nya's hair gel but to keep the tousled look Jay tried getting it to be. Lloyd, however, was wearing a much more modern suit with a deep green tie.

"Hey you two. I've heard Kai was sick, is that true?" Skylor causally asked, making Nya wonder how exactly does that girl make it seem so easy.

"Yeah, he mentioned he got food poisoning from breakfast and had to bail and wanted us to send his apologies," Jay replied but Nya noticed his eyes kept flickering over to her.

"Oh… That's shame. But I guess it's alright, I got Nya for company," the redhead grinned as she nudged Nya with her elbow again, making the girl scowl at her.

"So you're Kai's sister?" Lloyd asked, voice full of interest.

"Yeah… That's me," Nya quietly said as she tried to discretely tug on Skylor's wrist, hoping to get her message across that she wanted to leave. _Now_.

"He never mentioned that you go here," Jay quipped.

"Kai told me how you two tried to hit on her and made sure not to say anything just so you two wouldn't go looking for her when you guys are supposed to be working on the project," Skylor snorted and Nya watched with some sort of amusement of both boys' faces turned bright red.

"Yeah, just mention that in front of her as if she's not even here…" Lloyd grumbled sarcastically, looking away in embarrassment.

"Kai already told me," Nya said before she could even stop herself. _NO! Stop it! You just need to get out of there!_ "Anyway, let's keep heading to the drinks, Sky-"

"Hold up, Nya. These are your brother's friends. Surely you would want to know them more," Skylor smiled innocently while the shorter girl tried so hard not to glare at the girl.

"But I'm parched. Let's go," Nya dismissively stated as she grabbed Skylor's wrist and pulled the two away from the boys.

"You're no fun."

"Are you kidding me?" Nya hissed. "You know that they are the very two people I wanted to avoided at all cost!"

"Hey, you ran into Jay. That's your own fault."

"Ugh… Don't remind me," Nya muttered, trying to push all memories of that encounter far from her head.

They soon reached the drinks stationed where Nya poured glasses of punch for her and Skylor. The two girls still had a few boys trying to come up for them for a few dances but they still declined.

"So… If you were to dance with one boy, who would it be?" Nya curiously asked after they watched the last boy retreat to ask another girl to dance to the orchestral music in the background.

"You."

"Obviously Kai isn't here and I'm a horrible dancer," Nya muttered.

"Well, I've been dancing with Lloyd for the last few years since he is Lady Misako's son. He's actually quite the heartthrob here."

"He is?"

"Yep, and look. Here he comes."

Nya completely tensed upon that and immediately followed Skylor's line of vision to see the blonde making his way through the crowd and to them. Fortunately, Jay wasn't with him. Nya tried to see if she could find him but she had no luck at all.

"Skylor, could I interest you in a dance?"

"Sure. I'll be back, Nya," Skylor promised before taking Lloyd's extended hand.

"Skylor…" Nya almost whimpered as her friend walked away… leaving her all alone.

 _If Kai was actually here and was actually Skylor's boyfriend… he would definitely be asking her to dance and probably won't let her dance with any other guy… While making sure to scare all the boys away from me._

Nya sighed as she leaned against the wall and sadly watched as many pairs waltzed to the music or looked to the cluster of girls that were huddled together, taking selfies with their phones or giggling at a boy. She wished she could be as happy as everyone else was. But happiness was non-existent for Nya. Not after… Not after everything that had happened to her. Even if everyone was smiling and laughing with ease, Nya couldn't feel it. It wasn't infectious to her.

"How come you're here all by yourself?"

Nya looked to her left and sighed once again to see Cole.

"Skylor went to dance. So I'm here waiting for her," Nya simply stated and looked away from Cole, hoping he would get the hint that she wasn't after any company… but luck was never in her favour.

"Well, would you like to dance then?"

"No thanks."

"Just one, I promise," Cole said with that same charming smile of his and he reached out for her hand. Nya immediately flinched upon the contact. "No girl should be on the side of the dance floor alone."

"I appreciate the concern but I don't want to dance," the raven-haired girl hissed as she snapped her hand out of Cole's.

"Just one-"

"Sorry, is this guy bothering you, Nya?"

The girl jumped and wildly looked to her right to see Jay was suddenly by her side, sending Cole an icy look.

"Jay."

"Cole."

Nya worriedly looked between the two boys, praying that an argument or a fist-fight wouldn't break out between the two. Their eyes were firmly on each other, sending invisible daggers. Their bodies were tensed and their hands were fists by their side. Nya wanted nothing more than to run.

"Enjoy your night," Cole finally said, curtly before turning around and walking the other way.

"Sorry if he was bothering you," Jay softly said, making Nya feel her stomach churn again as she turned to face him.

"N-No… It's alright," she murmured quietly as she looked to her feet. "Thanks but… I should be going."

"Going where?"

 _Damn Jay and his stupid curiosity._

"Somewhere that's not here."

"If you want, I can take you to the dance floor," Jay suggested as he held a hand out… unlike Cole who just grabbed her hand.

But when Nya looked up to him again, she noticed he was flashing that grin he flashed at her a few weeks ago. His lips were stretched out into that alluring smile; his aligned teeth somewhat glowing in the chandelier's light and his faint dimples seeming to draw out this unusual… twinkle in his eyes. Again, it made Nya feel her heart skip a beat and her stomach fluttering in nervousness.

… And before she was even aware of it, she took his hand.

 **I know, I know. I said two weeks and yet I still update in a week – but I couldn't help it! I've been getting much more sleep and that just made me pump all of this out in a couple of days. Also… I've been having a couple of crappy days so I guess I focused on this to cheer myself up. But thank you to: Natalie Singe, JSNI, Beatitude Girl, RandomDragon2.0, unknown, MortalNinja, EchoIsACutie, Guest, Cerenda and all my silent readers! And also thanks to new favouriters and followers (I would have given you a shoutout before but Fanfiction didn't send me all notifications and I only found out just now T.T): peaches n plasma creme, Au51in and Mason the Cinnamon Roll!  
**

 **Natalie Singe:** **I'm glad you spotted the 'Doc' thing because that's the reason why Nya had told Jay not to call her that xD And you're failing to get a job? Don't worry. It took me two years of job hunting to actually land my job. I've been at mine for a year and a half now and only within the last two months have I actually been 'climbing the ladder'. My tip is to not go for the mainstream jobs – like chain stores and so on. So many people apply to them. Find a small local shop and you're more likely to get employed – BUT BE CAREFUL! Some of those smaller businesses may either pay you a good amount or they don't.**

 **JSNI:** **12 hours? That's still good! For a whole year, I didn't get more than 6 hours. Sometimes, I would only get 3 hours a fortnight. Only recently have I been getting more.**

 **Beatitude Girl:** **Awwww, thanks and don't stress about having to update soon either! Like my story 'Underestimated' is WAYYYYY overdue… Like over a year… Oopsy xD**

 **EchoIsACutie:** **You have no idea how much your review had brightened up my day! I'm soooo flattered to be your 'favourite' author and that I'm the best here but I know that there's plenty of other talented writers in this achieve! And for you and remember all of those little details? That's a lot! xD I just find it hilarious considering you ask me how I remember all those fighting style. Half the time I just search it up and search up YouTube videos to study it myself but I've written a whole bunch of other stories in my year-long disappearance covering over Harry Potter (5 books), Avengers (like 3 different series, my main one being 7 books long), Avatar (8 books), the Hobbit (4) and many more and most often, they're filled with so much action around the martial arts and swordsmanship so I just remember from all those previous times. I'm certainly no expert though hahaha. And you're right, at this point I do believe this story will be slightly longer than 20 chapters.**

 **Cerenda:** **Well, the idea of the ball I actually got from my other Jaya story 'What Do You Call Love' which, I guess, the scene was inspired from Cinderella xD Buuuuut Nya won't be leaving any shoe for Jay.**

 **Thank you everyone for supporting me. Again, I'm happy to receive any harsh criticism – they won't hurt me, they just tell me what I need to improve on so I can make this story enjoyable for everyone! But hopefully, I can update next week where Jay and Nya will dance together and a certain panic (PTSD) attack from a certain someone… I wonder who it will be? Until then, xoxo – ZaneLoverfan88**


	11. Chapter 11 - Resplendent

**Chapter 11  
Resplendent**

 **.:Jay:.**

When Jay had first caught the girl around the waist and peered into her amber eyes, the first word that entered his mind was 'Kai'. For a moment, it really terrified Jay, considering he really did not want to have feelings for his roommate and be one of those pathetic characters in love stories who see the person they love in literally everything! But it was after he took a look at the girl's face when he realised she looked nearly the same as the girl in Kai's photo… His sister.

For the whole night, Jay couldn't keep his eyes away from her. Creepy, yes, he knew that but he couldn't help it. There was… Something different about her. Not because she was his roommate's sister but… it was something else. There was something that singled her from the other girls.

It wasn't just her beauty. No way. Well… Yes, Nya was very, _very_ , beautiful. Heck, even rivalling Skylor's beauty. She wasn't the typically tall skinny girl with the slim figure, big breast and big butt. No, she had broad shoulders with nicely toned arms. Her breasts were… eh, average and her butt small but there was something about it that made her really appealing to Jay.

Maybe it was the way she walked. She didn't walk like any other girl with the typical bobbing 'up' and 'down'… but Jay didn't know what exactly made her walk differently. Or maybe it was the way that she wasn't the typical girl who would fall head over heels upon seeing him or Lloyd. In fact, it was like she wanted to avoid every single guy at their academy.

Whatever she had that managed to captivate him was starting to slowly starting to drive him insane… Insane to the point that Jay had to beg Lloyd to try and ask Skylor to dance so Jay could just get a moment alone with Nya and find out what it was about her that was magnetising.

… Ugh, if Kai ever found out, he would literally skin him alive!

Buuuuuut then again, Kai made him and Lloyd promise not to talk about his sister… Nothing about not actually pursuing her when he wasn't around.

So Jay made sure not to hold Nya's hand too tightly or intimately, the last thing he would want was for her to tell Kai and then have his roommate skin him alive. But, he also noticed the way that she flinched at Cole's touch and figured that if he handled her gently, she would be more willing to dance with him.

However, as he walked to find an empty spot for them to dance in, Jay was hoping that Nya would actually… Say something. She was really quiet – almost like her brother. Nevertheless, the boy managed to find a spot and pulled her -slowly and gently- in a waltz hold.

"Ummm… Maybe this is a bad idea," she mumbled, looking down to her feet and slightly pulling her body away from his.

"Why? Did I do something wrong?" Jay asked, trying not to let panic be heard into his voice.

"What? No… It's just that… well… I've never properly danced before."

"Never danced before?" Jay gasped.

"Kind of…"

"Hey, that's okay. Just don't look down to your feet, it'll just confuse you more. Just listen to the music and let me guide you and you'll be fine."

"You've danced before?" She asked, looking up to him with amber eyes Jay had seen so many times before. Actually… It was kind of creepy how much she looked like Kai.

"Errr… My parents sort of taught me?" Jay weakly and unsurely answered before cringing at what he said. _Good one. How to Lose Girls 101, say stupid stuff!_

"That's cool that they've taught you that," she said quietly and looked away.

Jay immediately noticed the change in mood. Then again… It wasn't exactly happy to begin with – heck, Jay hadn't even seen her smile yet. The only time he had seen her smile… Would have been that picture Kai had. Jay wanted to ask her what was wrong… But considering they have only met tonight and that she could possibly as secretive as her brother, she probably wouldn't tell him anything.

"Ready?"

"… I guess."

With that, Jay pulled her closer to him and slowly danced with her to the music. At first, she didn't move _with_ him. Whenever he tried directing her to go in a particular direction, she would go the other way. Luckily, after thirty seconds, she managed to get the point that when he said he would guide her, she was meant to go with it. Other than that, she had stumbled a couple times… Okay, more than a couple times. More like over ten times but each time, Jay's fast reflexes would catch her before she could face plant into the floor – much like Kai, she had horrible balance.

But over time (more like after another minute), the soft and melodious sound of the string orchestra spun around them, lifting away gravity. Jay couldn't count the amount of times Nya had squished his foot under her own; however, not wanting to worry her, he still smiled brightly as their shoes danced over the ballroom floor. Jay had also become mesmerised by the way her raven hair spun out and bounced more with each move and beat. It wasn't just her hair actually; it was her dress too. Although Nya couldn't take large steps, she moved nimbly and the end of her red dress would billow out whenever he spun them in circles.

And, after a coupe minutes, for the first time, Jay saw a smile enter Nya's lips.

 **.:Nya:.**

Nya felt something new. At first, her body detected it as a foreign substance and was screaming at her to abort her current mission and just stop. But normally, whenever this happened, she would feel fear slither through her body, grasping its icy fingers around her throat and stab holes into her lungs to make everything so hard for her to breathe.

But no. This… feeling that Nya had felt wasn't like that. Instead, it felt like she could breathe _easier_. Then slowly, her body recognised it to be something she had felt once upon a time – a time when everyone she loved was by her side. This feeling that she felt, felt like it had poked invisible into her skin, allowing all the tension she had felt throughout the night to pour out. Nya felt like her steps were lighter, and she couldn't help but tilt her face backwards so she could see the twinkling lights of the chandelier from above.

… And slowly, a genuine smile popped onto her lips.

Nya honestly didn't know why she felt happy or why she was smiling. She was only dancing with Jay.

Maybe… Maybe it was the way he looked at her with that 'charming' grin he self-acclaimed. Nya had to admit, it was a little infectious. Or maybe it got to do with the fact that the last time Nya felt… safe in somebody arms were Kai's many months ago – because right now, she felt oddly safe with Jay's left hand on her hips. She had started to trust him in guiding her, trusting him to ensure she didn't trip and make a fool of herself – and if she did, he would be there to catch her.

"You'll become a pro in no time," Jay grinned from in front of her, his smiling stretching even wider… making her own smile widen.

 _Traitorous lips…_ Nya thought bitterly but she couldn't help but welcome the smile and the happiness that flooded into her. It was like a drug – hard and addictive and she didn't want it to stop no matter how many times her mind was telling her to snap out of it.

"I'm not sure about being a pro but at least I can now say I can dance… Considering I have a partner who can guide me as well as you can-" But Nya immediately clamped her lips shut as those words poured out.

Heat instantly attacked her face and she looked away from Jay, feeling stupid and embarrassed. Just who would say stuff like that right in front of the very person they were talking about? However, Nya was surprised when she heard Jay chuckle.

This wasn't just any chuckle either. This wasn't the usual nervous chuckle Jay would make after nobody would laugh at his joke. This wasn't the teasing chuckle Jay would use either whenever he and Lloyd decided to tease her for her lack of skills in certain areas of their training. Heck, this wasn't the loud laughter Jay would make whenever laughing at someone.

No. This chuckle was soft, gentle – a sound that genuinely surprised Nya that it also made her heart beat faster… But not in fear. Huh?

"No need to be embarrassed. I've made a fool out of myself many times before. It's kind of nice seeing someone else do it for once," Jay chuckled.

 _True… Jay does make a fool out of himself so many times… Like today when he tripped over trying to put on his pants._

"You still can't help but be embarrassed, right?" Nya curiously asked with a slight tilt of her head, no longer focusing her attention on dancing since she trusted Jay to move them.

"Yeah… True- ah!"

Nya gasped as Jay's back collided into another dancing couple, causing the boy to lose his balance… which then resulted her to lose her balance but Nya was fortunate that Jay managed to catch himself _and her_ before they could have really made a scene for themselves on the floor.

"Ow, watch where you're going- oh, Jay?"

Nya looked up and noticed that the couple they coincidently collided into was Lloyd and Skylor… in which the latter was sending a questioning look at Nya, eyes constantly flickering between her and Jay. Nya mentally groaned, knowing she was going to get a lot of questions from Skylor soon.

"Oh, hey Lloyd, Skylor," Jay nervously chuckled, the same chuckle he would do when nobody laughed at his jokes.

"You have a habit of bumping into people, don't you?" Skylor questioned, her eyes looking Jay up and down. "First Nya, now us."

"He also bumped into a couple of other people earlier."

"Lloydddd, you don't have to tell everyone that," Jay immediately whined, making Nya wanting to fight the grin that wanted to enter her lips.

"If it makes you feel better, he's been bumping into other people when we were dancing," Skylor inputted, making the blonde splutter unintelligent words while Jay snorted.

"But in my defence, you bump into a lot more people than me," Lloyd tried justifying.

 _Geez... And here I thought that two boys who apparently have better special awareness and balance than me wouldn't be bumping into this many people…_

"Well, if you two are going to keep fighting, Nya and I are going to get drinks. Enjoy the rest of your night," the redhead announced as she stepped around from Lloyd and grabbed Nya's wrist.

"Ummm… thanks for the dance," Nya managed to say to Jay before Skylor was already dragging her away from the boys… making Nya dread for the questions that were to come.

… And Nya was right to dread for the questions because as soon as the two girls reached the drinks station, Skylor was already exploding in questions.

"You danced with Jay? I thought you weren't going to dance with anyone. And I saw you smiling too. What's with that? I don't even think I saw you smile like that before! Do you like Jay-?!"

"Skylor!" Nya gasped, immediately darting forward to cover her hands over Skylor's lips before grimacing and moving her hands back to feel the stickiness of the lipstick… Lucky for Skylor, Nya didn't smudge her makeup.

"Okay, sorry. Maybe I took it too far with that question."

"You think?" Nya skeptically asked as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"But you two danced. Tell me about it."

"What is there to tell? We danced. End of story."

"You wanted to full out avoid him yet the second I'm gone, you two already went into each other's arms."

"Seriously Skylor?"

"Okay, sorry. But still! What would make you dance, and with the very person you didn't want to see of all reasons?" The redhead questioned, grabbing Nya's wrists, desperate for answers.

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"Just like I said. I don't know. He asked, held out his hand and I stupidly took it. Done."

"No, we're not done!"

 **.:Jay:.**

"Are you still there or have you whisked your brain to La La Land already?"

Jaya rapidly blinked when a hand quickly waved in front of his face, resulting him to look to the offender and saw Lloyd standing there, a questioning look that told him 'Talk. Now.'

"Errr, I'm still here."

"Really? Because I've realised you haven't torn your eyes from Kai's sister yet."

"I wasn't looking at Nya," Jay immediately lied, looking at his blonde friend directly in the eyes.

"You're a terrible liar."

"… Yeah… I know," Jay sighed.

"You know this isn't a good idea."

"Yeah, I know."

"I mean this is Kai's sister."

"I know, Lloyd."

"If he finds out, he's not going to be happy."

"I know."

"Heck, he may-"

"Lloyd! I get it!" Jay groaned in frustration. "But… There's just something so different about her."

"… You've really fallen head over heels for her."

"Shut up!" Jay hissed, slugging a deserving punch to Lloyd's arm then ignoring his 'ow!'. "There's really something different. I'm not joking. Haven't you noticed it?"

"I know she's different because she's our grumpy friend's _sister_! If you had a sister and I decided to hit on her, how would you feel?"

"Indifferent," Jay shrugged before trying to look over Lloyd's shoulder and back to the drinks station, seeing Nya frowning as Skylor was smiling brightly at her.

"Okay, but you're not Kai. He's protective of her considering he told us nothing about her."

"That's because we told him we wouldn't talk to him about her – therefore making him not talk to us about her."

"Exactly!"

"But that's before we were friends. Maybe I could ask him tonight."

"… Or you can go to training tomorrow with a black eye," Lloyd quipped.

"What do you think of Nya?" The brunette asked, ignoring Lloyd's previous commented – causing him to groan.

"I don't want to date her. That's for sure."

"No. I mean as a person. Personality wise. Upon first glance, what can you tell about her character?"

"… I don't know. She's a lot like Kai, that's for sure," Lloyd commented as he turned around to look at the two girls. "She's seems to be sullen like Kai. Doesn't really smile-"

"Exactly, doesn't really smile. Do you remember that photo we saw of Kai and Nya?"

"Yeah…?"

"They were both smiling so brightly. Yet, for the last few months we've been with Kai, he hadn't even smiled like that. In fact, he looks like a depressed version of what he was in the picture."

"What's your point, Jay?"

"And Nya doesn't smile either – but she smiled with me, Lloyd! When we were dancing, before you bumped into me-"

"No, you bumped into me!"

"Irreverent. Do you… Do you think something happened to them?" Jay curiously asked, noticing the way Nya seemed to be distressed while Skylor's expression turned serious.

"… Jay, I think you're seeing things that aren't there," Lloyd said softly, resting a hand on Jay's shoulder. "Kai and Nya are just broody siblings. That's it."

"But the photo-"

"Is just a photo. People smile and pose for photos," the blonde continued. "We shouldn't jump to conclusions when it comes to people… Especially if you're insulating something terrible to one of our friends."

"But I'm not jumping to conclusions," Jay insisted but his friend just shook his head.

"You're jumping to conclusions based on little evidence."

Jay immediately wanted to tell Lloyd that he was wrong, that there was a lot of evidence like Kai's old nightmare habits, how he would dodge questions Jay would ask about home, how he would never take off his shirt – maybe he didn't just have scars from blacksmithing and fighting. Maybe something else. But it was the nightmare habits that was Jay's strongest evidence.

However… Jay couldn't bring himself to tell Lloyd that. If there was anything that Jay had really learnt about Kai was that he hated showing weakness. He would push himself even beyond breaking point in training or even when he was clearly hurting after a harsh training session, he would try to be tough. Jay knew it was hard enough for Kai to even admit to anything about the nightmares… heck, to even allow Jay to see it in the first place – but Jay knew that Kai wouldn't want Lloyd to know…

"… Maybe you're right," Jay muttered quietly.

"Because I am. Look, if something bad was really happening-"

"Happened."

"Fine, if something bad had really happened, then we would have noticed it with a lot of other things. He doesn't cut himself or do any self-harm, does he?"

"Of course not!" Jay gasped.

"Then that's how we know. Stop looking into something that doesn't exist."

Jay sighed, looking away from the two girls and down to his hands where he could remember the feeling of Nya's hips in his left hand and her hand in his right. He knew something wasn't right… He knew that something was going on with both siblings and could possibly be still going on – otherwise if it happened ages ago, surely the two would have finally loosen up, right?

The boy looked back to the girls, seeing Skylor settle on hands on Nya's shoulder – the said girl looking more and more distressed. Jay wanted nothing more than to see that sweet smile on her lips again.

 **.:Nya:.**

 _"So why did you accept his hand?"_

 _"I don't know, Skylor. I'd just stupidly accepted it. Now can you drop it?"_

 _"No, I won't. You do know why you accepted Jay to a dance."_

 _"I don't."_

 _"You do but you're in denial. I think… I think you actually have a crush on Jay."_

Those last seven words repeated like a broken record player in Nya's head over, and over, and over again.

 _You actually have a crush on Jay._

It made her stomach churn so violently; it made nausea clawed at her throat. It took nearly every fibre of Nya's body to make sure she didn't project her dinner onto Skylor who only looked at her with a small excited grin.

Have a crush… on Jay? But it was absurd! Jay was her roommate-

 _Your attractively handsome and sometimes funny roommate._

-her teammate, her mentor and one of her friends. She _couldn't_ have a crush on him. Plus, why would she be attracted to him of all people? Sure he was attractive but there was always more to the person then their looks. To Nya, she valued personality and traits. What other aspects did she find appealing in Jay? His humour was sometimes funny, sometimes annoying and sometimes cringe-worthy.

Did Nya like funny guys? Yeah, she guessed she does. After all, humour and happiness happened to distract her mind from her gruelling past. She guessed she also liked how Jay was quite creative and inventive… How he always tried to stay positive and look at things from another angle or perspective-

"Skylor to Nya, you still in there?"

Nya rapidly blinked when a hand waved in front of her face, immediately distracting Nya from her traitorous thoughts. Her amber eyes then glared at the assaulter.

"I. Do. Not. Have. A. Crush. On. Jay." Nya stated firmly.

"You were smiling with him. You barely smile at all. And I mean a genuine smile."

"It's called acting," the raven-haired girl lied.

"Yeah, right," Skylor muttered, rolling her eyes. "Look, if you'd enjoyed yourself, you should go and ask him to dance again-"

"Skylor, no-"

"Nya, you can keep lying to me all you want about not feeling a single thing for Jay but you can't keep lying to yourself. Just go."

 ** _"Y-You have to go!"_**

 ** _"N-No! I'm not leaving you!"_**

 ** _"Just go! I promise to catch up!"_**

"Nya? What's wrong?"

 ** _"N-No. You promised… Y-You promised! I-I can't… Now without y-you."_**

 ** _"Then trust me when I say I'll catch up. Now go!"_**

"Nya!"

 **.:Skylor:.**

 _"Nya? What's wrong?"_

Something was wrong. The redhead immediately knew that when she had worriedly spotted her friend's face suddenly losing all colour. She knew that when Nya's eyes, which were glaring seconds ago, suddenly wide with fear. Then, Skylor could just barely hear the irregular and panic short breaths coming from the shorter girl, accompanied with frantic rises and falls of her chest.

Skylor didn't know what had happened. One moment, she was relaying the possibility of Nya potentially having a crush on Jay and the next moment, Nya seemed to be having a panic attack. How did mentioning a crush suddenly cause a panic attack, Skylor would never know but she knew one thing for certain: she had to snap her friend out of it and fast.

"Nya!" Skylor exclaimed, as she immediately placed her hands on the girl's shoulder, hoping to ground her to reality instead of whatever she was seeing. "Come on, snap out of it."

But the raven-haired girl didn't. Instead, she seemed to be panicking much worse. Skylor knew if she didn't snap Nya out of it, she was going to draw a lot of attention – attention that Skylor knew her friend would hate. So, Skylor quickly grabbed Nya's wrist and pulled her through the crowd and out of the ballroom. The redhead would frequently look over her shoulder to keep an eye on Nya, to make sure she wasn't spiralling down dangerously into her panic attack.

Once the two were alone in the empty hall that led to the ballroom, Skylor gently pressed the stunned girl to the wall, not wanting her to fall or lose balance. Then, she grasped Nya's face in her hands and forced her face to stare at hers.

"Nya, listen to me. Listen to my voice, okay?" Skylor urged as her fingers strummed against the girl's pale skin. "Whatever you're seeing, it's in the past. Whatever you're scared of or whatever your sick uncle is doing to you, he can't do it to you again."

Once those words exited Skylor's lips, she'd desperately hoped that Nya would calm down… but she didn't. Instead, it probably took a minute more of coaxing and comforting words from Skylor until her friend finally started to calm down… but not without the tears.

Skylor felt sadness ebb at her chest as Nya's eyes dripped with tears. Moment by moment, they fell; the salty drops cutting through the makeup. It was pure instinct that made Skylor rush forward and gather the broken girl into her arms.

"Shhhh, it's okay," Skylor murmured, rubbing her hands up and down the girl's tense back in hopes of comforting her.

However, Nya immediately pushed herself away from Skylor. Grey eyes watched as the girl hurriedly wiped her tears away, smudging the makeup. Then, the redhead could hear her muttering words to herself, words that she couldn't hear.

"… Sorry," Nya eventually whispered with clarity although voice still raw with emotion. "I-I didn't mean to freak out on you."

"No, it's okay. I promise," Skylor reassured her before hesitantly resting a hand on Nya's shoulder. "Let's end the night early. How does that sound to you?"

"… That sounds really good."

 **SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT! I had a surprise exam and a 50% weighted assignment thrown at me so both of them took my attention and made their way to the top of my priority list… As well as work. I've been working for more than 16 hours each week since I have last posted. I mean, yay, I'm getting more money but I'm just finding myself exhausted. Anyway, my assignment is due tomorrow, when I got another shift, but I needed a break from it so here I am updating.**

 **ANYWAY, massive thanks to everyone who has reviewed! This story has surpassed 100 reviews within ten chapter – it's honestly amazing! I love you all and for your support – again, it's amazing! Massive thanks to: Natalie Singe, Beatitude Girl, unknown, Guest, RandomDragon2.0, JSNI, MortalNinja, EchoIsACutie, Joel, Cerenda, Hoppy854 for favouriting, Jaell and my silent readers!**

 **EchoIsACutie** **: Do I think I'll ever upload those other fanfictions? No, I probably won't haha. They're really personal to me since I've cooperated something that has happened into my life – the goods and the bad and just place it into retrospective to the show/movie/book I was writing for.**

 **Cerenda** **: You and me both! xD I'm pretty awkward in dances. I'm someone who loves to hug but other than that, hates being touched haha. So a crowd of bodies is definitely not my cup of tea (which reminds me, after I update this, I need to refill my cup).**

 **Once again, thank you everyone for supporting me. And again** ** _again_** **, I'm happy to receive any harsh criticism – they won't hurt me, they just tell me what I need to improve on so I can make this story enjoyable for everyone! Unfortunately, I'll be updating in two weeks' time since I'm working 8 hours next weekend and got to sit two 3 hour exams next Sunday T.T**

 **But I'll see you all in two weeks where I have finally decided to have mercy on you all and give you an actual insight of what happened to Kai! Until then, xoxo – ZaneLoverfan88**


	12. Chapter 12 - Fatality

**Chapter 12  
Fatality**

 **.:Jay:.**

Jay sighed as he entered his and Kai's dorm. Although the boy was disappointed he couldn't find Nya for the rest of the night, he couldn't help but think of her. He couldn't help but feel himself falling deeper for his roommate's sister despite not exchanging that many words with her. True, she wasn't as gorgeous as Skylor but she was still beautiful in her own way. Hair as black as raven, amber eyes so hauntingly captivating, her face a combination between sharpness and angelic.

… But at the same time, while Jay was admiring over her, he was also finding himself worrying over her and Kai. Jay never knew why he didn't assume something horrible happened to Kai when the nightmares occurred or when he had revealed the reason he didn't want to take off his clothes was because of scars. It had to be something somewhat recent… Like within the last year. In that photo, he and Nya looked so happy but now, both siblings are just… melancholy.

Jay's blue eyes wondered over to his roommate through the darkness of the room, just being able to see the boy's outline from underneath the blankets, his back facing Jay. Some sort of sixth sense told Jay that Kai wasn't asleep so he turned on the lights – just so he wouldn't trip over something.

"Feeling any better?" Jay asked as he walked over to his belongings and pulled out a pair of pyjamas.

"I guess…" Kai muttered, still not rolling over to acknowledge him. Not that Jay expected him to do so anyway.

"Well, Skylor looked great – not that I'm hitting on your girlfriend but I just thought you wanted to know considering you weren't there. She didn't really hang out with other guys, but she did dance with Lloyd once – but don't kill him when you see him-"

"Jay, your voice is giving me a headache. Shut up."

The boy sighed as he looked over to Kai. It wasn't the first time that Kai had said that to him; yet, this time it actually bothered Jay… Maybe it was because of the realisation he had earlier or because he just wanted to impress Nya's brother…

 _I'm gonna go for the former._

Nevertheless, Jay stayed quiet, not wanting to agitate his roommate further and went to the bathroom to change out of his suit, to shower and then to change into his pyjamas. When he exited the bathroom, he saw that Kai didn't even move a muscle – he was exactly in the same position as before.

"Well… I met your sister," Jay sighed, just wanting to draw a conversation out of Kai and maybe start to investigate into his roomie's past… however, he was surprised to see Kai tense.

"You did?" Kai asked, voice a little interested but he still didn't turn over.

"You don't sound mad that I'm talking about her."

"You rather I be?"

"Errr… No. She seems great."

Silence fell after that and Jay momentarily wondered if he said the wrong thing. He didn't want Kai to immediately assume that he was crushing on his younger sister (even though that was the truth) otherwise things would be tense considering how protective Kai seemed to be over Nya. However, the silence just seemed to stretch on.

"Can I ask you something?" Jay asked, sitting on the edge on his bed and staring Kai's back.

"Do you have to?"

"Yes," Jay firmly stated as oppose to the usual 'not really'. "Did something happen to your sister?"

If Jay were to ask if something happened to Kai, the boy would immediately close up… hopefully, asking about Nya wouldn't end up with the end same result. _Hopefully._

"Why would you ask?"

"Well, she was probably the only person in that room that wasn't smiling… I mean she did once but she mainly frowned or looked distressed. Then I think she left the ballroom early."

Jay waited a few seconds for Kai's reply… which actually felt like minutes to him.

"She doesn't like dresses or dressing up. She doesn't like formal functions. That's all."

 _Lies._

Jay couldn't take this anymore.

"Kai… Stop lying to me. I've kept quiet about this long enough."

Again, his words weren't met with an immediate response… But after a couple seconds, Kai rolled over and Jay was a little stunned to see that the boy looked like… well, that he looked like he had been crying. His eyes were bloodshot, his face was puffy and his eyes swollen. There were no tears but it was enough to concern Jay greatly.

"What happened to you?" Jay urged, leaning forward. "I know that something must had happened in your past to make you like this. I saw that photo of you and Nya – you two looked happy but now you both are just so melancholy. You're my friend and I just want to understand so I can… I don't know, I guess help or at least know what to avoid around you. I don't want any more lies or vague answers. I don't want conversations to not-so-subtly change just because you obviously don't want me to find out about something. You can trust me."

Silence.

Jay had always disliked silence. He disliked how empty it was. How eerie it was… But Jay had never hated it as much as he had in this moment. Why? Because this silence was suffocating. He didn't know whether or not if something sinister was around the corner. That was why he always talked, why he always told bad jokes or poor stories – because they could keep away the silence; keep away the depravity of reality.

"… Our parents are dead. Happy?" Kai answered with a mutter, his amber eyes downcast and looking anywhere but Jay… who could only stare at his friend in shocked.

His parents were… dead? Upon hearing those words pour from Kai's mouth, Jay wanted nothing more than to slap himself and immediately take it all back. Of all things to ask… this was one of the stupidest questions… And of all responses he had imagine Kai to possibly reply with, this was probably one of the worst. No… not the worst but… One of them.

Jay dearly loved his parents. As embarrassing as they could be, he wouldn't want anything to befall them – hence why the nightmare of them burning up in the trailer had always been a haunting nightmare Jay could never erase. Without his parents, he probably wouldn't be the man he was today… They supported him no matter what and try so hard to get him into the academy he had dreamt of joining.

To imagine them dead…

Scratch that. Jay didn't want to imagine them dead. That was a whole world of hurt he wasn't ready to imagine the possibility of. So… To hear that Kai's parents were dead made Jay feel utterly crushed.

 _"It sucks to close someone close. Although… I never had the friend that I've lost become my rival, losing someone still makes you miss the good old time when things were just normal and easy, huh?"_

That was what Kai had said to him a couple weeks back. Jay could vividly remember how Kai's demeanour suddenly changed to one that… that probably resembled grief. No doubt, it was for his parents.

"Kai… I'm so sorry," Jay gently whispered, his chest feeling uncomfortably tight as a wave of sadness hit him hard.

"… It's in the past. Now will you leave me alone about it?"

And with that, he rolled over… Kai's way of end of discussion.

 **.:Nya:.  
** ** _A Week Later_**

 _The day was postcard perfect; picturesque. The early morning ray of light gently shone onto Jamanakai Village, illuminating everything in its wake. The sky was a perfect baby blue – not the psychedelic candy-blue nor the washed out grey which always promised of rain to come. No, the sky was baby blue with a blanket of clouds rolling in from the east._

 _Jamanakai Village, itself, was like a labyrinth with roads at a moderate to thin width and tall buildings bordering up the sides – leaving some roads in darkness unless the midday sun wasn't hidden away behind some clouds._

 _"I still don't think it's safe for us to be here," Nya quietly urged as she stayed close to Kai's side as they made their way down one of Jamanakai's most busy road where market stalls were set up and villagers shouting for buyers to come over. "It's too close to Ignacia."_

 _"We'll be fine," Kai reassured her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and pulled her away from a buyer who intended to grab her just to get their attention. "It'd been two months. I'm sure Aidan had stopped looking for us, or if he is, he would be in Ninjago City by now. He wouldn't expect us to come close to Ignacia."_

 _"Still, it's a risk," she whispered, allowing her brother to weave them through the crowd of people._

 _"Like I said, I got a friend here who's willing to let us stay for a couple days. It'll allow us to rest up and restock for our trip to Birchwood Forest."_

 _"… I just have a bad feeling about this, that's all," Nya murmured as they exited the busy street._

 _"You worry too much. You're going to get so many wrinkles and grey hairs at this rate," Kai softly teased, only resulting her to glare at him._

 _"All these so called wrinkles and grey hairs would be entirely your fault."_

 _"My fault?" Kai gasped. "Your words wound me, little sister."_

 _"But I speak of the truth. Here I thought we would be safe and wound-free on the run; yet, you still manage to find different ways to injure yourself."_

 _"I-It's not my fault that there's rocks in the ground or there's evil animals in the trees who believes it's funny to land on MY good looking face and make it look horrible."_

 _"Pfft, it wasn't that good looking to begin with."_

 _"Nya!" Kai cried out but the girl couldn't help but chuckle at her brother whose expression softened from being offended to smiling as well. "Well, at least I have you to patch me up, Doc."_

 _"Why do you keep calling me that?" Nya asked, evidently annoyed as she pulled a face at her brother._

 _"Call you what?"_

 _"Doc?"_

 _"Because that's what you are to me other than my sister, my doctor."_

 _It didn't take long until they reached their destination. The house stood on a slight rise on the edge of the village. It stood on its own and looked over the majority of Jamanakai Village. The house, itself, wasn't a remarkable house by any means - it was about thirty years old. It was, squarish, made of brick, and had four windows set in the front with a size and proportion which -more or less- exactly failed to please._

 _"… Which friend is this again?" Nya asked with a slight tilt of her head, looking over the house again._

 _"Ronin," Kai replied as he walked towards the front door._

 _"Didn't Ronin move to Stiix a couple years back?"_

 _"Well, he moved to Jamanakai last year. I mean would YOU want to stay in Stiix for long?"_

 _"Yeah, I wouldn't," Nya slightly mused as she quickly went to Kai's side as he raised a closed fist and knocked against the wooden door._

 _For what seemed like an eternity, the door finally opened._

 _Nya could remember Ronin a couple years ago; the clean shaven square jaw, light brown hair and brown eyes man who was half a decade older than Kai. However, the man in front of the looked… different. Really different. Like more worn out. His hair was still light but long and looked like it could use a wash. Underneath his brown eyes were deep bags, probably from the lack of sleep and his lower face looked like it haven't been shaved in a few days._

 _"Kai! Nya! So good to see you two," the man greeted, his dry lips pulling into a… forced smile? Then again, even when Ronin lived in Ignacia, he seemed a little sketchy to Nya._

 _"Hey Ronin. Thank you so much for this-"_

 _"It's not a problem, Kai. You guys stuck your necks out for me in Ignacia as well, the least I can do is let you stay a couple of night," Ronin simply shrugged as he opened the thick wooden door wider to allow them in._

 _Kai and Nya immediately stepped into the house, not wanting to be caught out on the streets anymore. Nya slightly coughed in the damp air of the house while hearing Ronin shut the door behind them. Immediately, they were engulfed in darkness. Not the pitch black darkness since there was little rays of light penetrating from above the curtains but all the lights were shut and all curtains were drawn close. Nya could only just make out the outlines of obvious furniture._

 _"How come all the curtains are closed and the lights are off?" Nya curiously asked as she stayed still, next to Kai's side, not wanting to trip over anything._

 _"I don't have a great deal of money to keep paying for the electricity bills and I don't like neighbours peering in."_

 _"So what, you use candle lights?" Kai questioned._

 _"Something like that," Ronin replied, his footsteps echoing deeper into the house._

 _Nya heard Kai take a step forward, immediately making her frown and grab his wrist before he could go any further._

 _"Nya?"_

 _"Let's go. I don't like this," Nya whispered as she tried to move him back towards the front door._

 _"I know you're not the biggest fan of the dark but-"_

 _"No. I just can't shake off this bad feeling," the girl continued to say quietly, effectively cutting off Kai._

 _"Nya, Ronin is our friend-"_

 _But suddenly, the lights turned on. It caused Nya's mind to give a sharp cry of pain at the sudden brightness but she kept her eyes closes for a couple seconds before opening them. The sight that befell before her and Kai made her gasp loudly and for her blood to run cold._

 _Standing before them, was a man who was easily the tallest out of everyone in the room. He stood tall and proud, but his muscular stance radiated with intimidation and rage… Rage that Nya knew was for her and Kai. She could feel his dark eyes narrowing into snake-like slits and his jaw clenched tightly. His arms were crossed over his chest where one hand held the handle of a danger that glimmered in the light._

 _But, Nya's view was blocked off when she felt Kai grab her arm and push her behind him._

 _"Kai. Nya. So good to see you," their uncle curtly stated, his voice flat and shimmering with anger._

 _"I can't say the same about you," Kai hissed, making the girl tug on her brother's sleeve._

 _"Don't agitate him," Nya whispered but her words fell on deaf ears._

 _"How could you do this to us, Ronin?"_

 _"I-I… I had no choice. I'm really sorry-"_

 _"You. Shut up. This no longer concerns you," Aidan snapped into Ronin's direction._

 _"My debt-"_

 _"Is now paid off. Now get lost. We got some… family business to attend to."_

 _Nya looked over her shoulder and saw the front door was only a couple metres behind her. She looked around Kai and saw that Aidan's hand started to twirl the dagger, signalling its anticipation to throw it into its target. This wasn't good at all._

 _But she saw Ronin quickly leave the house through the back door, leaving the siblings and the uncle._

 _"Come on, time to head back home," their uncle gruffly muttered._

 _"No, we're not going back with you," Kai defiantly snapped, stepping backwards which caused Nya to take one back as well._

 _"Stupid boy, you better come with me otherwise I can plan worse things to bestow you and your sister-"_

 _"Over my dead body!"_

 _And everything else that happened became a blur. One moment, they were having a stand-off and the next, Kai had thrown a nearby painting on the wall at Aidan before grabbing her by the wrist and dragging her through the front door and away from their uncle._

 _"Run run run!" Kai shouted at her, shoving her in front of him so he continued to be a firm barrier between her and Aidan._

 _Adrenaline suddenly flooded into Nya's body like it was on an intravenous drip – right into her blood at full pelt. It caused her to push and shove people out of the way on the markets street. She was screaming and shouting for them to move – Kai doing the same._

 _Nya immediately rounded the corner of the street, right to the exit of the massive wall that surrounded Jamanakai Village. She felt her feet slip a little outwards but she managed to maintain her balance. But all that left for Nya was an excruciating pound within her chest. She breathed deeper, faster and harder, allowing the cold air of the breeze to shock her lungs and urge her to run faster._

 _She quickly looked over her shoulder and saw Kai was right on her heels, panic and worry on his face but passed him, she couldn't see Aidan but she could hear him yelling at people to move out of the way._

 _"Don't look back! Just keep running into the forest!" Kai shouted at her, making the girl whip her head back forward._

 _"T-The forest?"_

 _"The forest! We'll lose him in there!"_

 _Nya obeyed her brother, fully trusting his judgement because what else was she supposed to do? It wasn't like she had any better idea._

 _However, with each footfall, a jarring pain would shoot to her ankles and knee as she ran into the uneven terrain of the forest. Every step was either on a rock, on an upturned root that dipped with her weight or into a slight ditch. In the forest, there wasn't a straight line so Nya was forced to constantly weave from the trees and the thick foliage, leaping over roots and rocks while ducking under low hanging branches. She didn't need to look over her shoulder to know that Kai was directly behind her._

 _"Get back here!" She could hear Aidan's voice roar, immediately causing nearby flocks to rush from their perched positions in the trees._

 _"Keep running!" Kai panted from behind her._

 _"You ungrateful children! I will kill you both!"_

 _Suddenly, it was like the adrenaline was replaced with cold-blooded fear. It pumped through her bloodstream, making the heat she was feeling seconds ago be replaced with a coldness – a coldness that shocked her system and making it harder for her lungs to expand. She couldn't breathe properly, it felt as if someone was choking her. Her heart was racing and Nya found the thought of curling up into a ball more attractive._

 _"Don't slow down! Keep going!" Kai insisted from behind her, a hand nudging her in the middle of her upper back, momentarily causing her to stumble but not make her fall to the ground._

 _"I-I can't!"_

 _"Yes you can- ah!"_

 _Nya managed to stop her body within a few strides and when she turned around, she gasped to see Kai trying to get himself back off the ground while the dagger their uncle had was planted into his back, just beneath his right shoulder and missing Kai's backpack._

 _"Kai!"_

 _"Keep running! I'll be right behind you!" Her brother yelled, voice strained and barely escaping through his clenched teeth as a hiss before he forced himself onto his feet. "Run!"_

 _"But Kai-"_

 _"I'm right behind you! Just run!"_

 _So, she ran. But as she continued to run through the forest, she kept checking over her shoulder to assure herself that her brother was indeed right behind her. His pace wasn't as fast as it was before, causing Nya to slow down – not ever allowing herself to run off without her brother. But her concern was skyrocketing, reaching towards the sky._

 _Kai had his left arm across his chest and over his shoulder to somewhat apply measure near the wound while keeping his right arm tucked against his chest to prevent further damage to his shoulder. His face was slowly -ever so slowly!- draining of colour as sweat poured from his messy hair._

 _"Stop looking at me! Just keep running!" Kai had all but yelled at her as they much deeper into the forest but keeping careful as to their right was a dangerously steep slope – too steep to run down and not fall down._

 _"Get back here!"_

 _"Just keep running, Nya-!"_

 _Suddenly, Kai was cut off again and Nya turned around just in time to catch her brother's falling body. She gasped loudly to no longer see a single dagger in his back but one in the back of his leg too, and deeply. However, another gasp tore through her throat as her brother's weight caused her to be knocked off balance, tumbling down the steep slope._

 _Nya cried out, feeling her brother's body being ripped out of her arms but to also feel branches, thorns and rocks scratch, bit and dig into her skin while her limbs tried to brace her fall… but in reality, they only got crushed underneath her body in odd angles as she continued to roll down._

 _Once her body came to a stop, Nya blinked back the stars and frantically looked around for her brother, to see him groaning on the ground and struggling to get up a few metres away. The sight itself made Nya's body sick with fear and worry._

 _"Kai!"_

 _She immediately pushed herself onto her feet and stumbled over to her brother's side, to see that the fall had only caused the daggers to stab deeper into his body and twist into his flesh. Thick crimson blood stained his clothes, making Nya feel ill to her stomach._

 _"Y-You have to go!" Kai hissed, his strained voice full of agony, erupting fear like no other to explode within Nya._

 _"N-No! I'm not leaving you!" She urged as she immediately pulled him up onto his feet, his left arm around her shoulders._

 _"I'm dead weight-!"_

 _"I'm not leaving you!" Nya shouted this time, her stinging eyes staring into her brother's eyes. "We stick together!"_

 _"Not if it means Aidan will kill you! Just go! I promise to catch up!" And with that, Kai pulled from her and shoved her forward. "Go!"_

 _"I won't!" She cried, tears falling down her cheeks as she turned to face Kai. "Don't make me go, Kai. Don't. We have to stick together-"_

 _"Nya," Kai murmured, limping forward to place his warm hands onto her shoulders but drawing them near her neck so his thumbs could softly brush the skin above her jawline. "You have to go. I won't go down with a fight."_

 _"K-Kai," Nya brokenly whispered._

 _"I love you, more than anything," he promised before hastily pulling himself forward and plant a quick kiss to her forehead. "Now go. I'll catch up."_

 _"N-No. You promised… Y-You promised!" The girl sobbed, tear after tear pouring from her eyes as little hiccups hitched into her ever-so-tight throat._

 _She could feel her heart breaking past beyond repair. This definitely hurt way more than the news of their parents' death. Why? Because Nya knew her brother was going to sacrifice himself for her… That if he was gone or she was forced to leave and he miraculously catches up in who knew how long, she was going to be alone. Kai had always been by her side and for him to be suddenly gone?_

 _"P-Please, you promised. I-I can't… Not without y-you."_

 _"I'm sorry, Nya... Just remember that I love you."_

 _Before she could protest even more, Kai's hands harshly turned her around and pushed her forward, making her fall down into the thick foliage of a bush… where her head struck down on a rock and everything went dark…_

 **So sorry about the wait everyone so extremely sorry if this chapter seemed rushed. I had eighteen hours' worth of work this week and next week, I got twenty-three T.T And I got four assignments and an exam so again, next update will take two weeks. So sorry everyone!**

 **But massive thanks and shout outs to RebelutionaryWrites, Jaell, Natalie Singe, unknown, RandomDragon2.0, AuroraRain18, 1Difurench1, Guest, hydroelectricjaya, JSNI, MortalNinja, EchoIsACutie, Cerenda and all my silent readers!**

 **EchoIsACutie:** **THANK YOU SO MUCH! Right after I read your review, I've went back to change the blond/blonde and read over for grammatical errors. This chapter would probably have it since I did it in a rush and I still need to finish off an assignment tonight.**

 **Cerenda:** **I don't know much about panic attacks either. I wrote what I thought would be a panic attack based on what I've read in other fanfictions and seen in movies. It does sound quite terrifying, doesn't it?**

 **Sorry for not replying back to everyone's review. I still got an assignment to finish off tonight (It's currently 9:50pm in Australia) so I've just trying to do this week.** ** _BUT,_** **is Kai going to die? Or will he get Aidan away from Nya and miraculously appear later on in the story? Until then, I'll see you all in two weeks. Xoxo – ZaneLoverFan88**


	13. Chapter 13 - Bereft

**WARNING** **: There is slight mention of suicide (only less than 100 words) in this chapter. Suicide is tragic, traumatic and painful. If you are having suicidal thoughts, please seek out the help of loved ones, a mental health professional, a teacher or any trusted adult. Teenage years can be confusing. I know. I've been through it and had a couple thoughts myself but everybody is worthwhile and your life is precious and important. Xoxo**

 **Chapter 13  
Bereft**

 **.:Nya:.**

 _When Nya was finally brought around from unconsciousness, she was aware of the dying warmth of the setting sun and the eerie silence that lingered in the air. Rocks, roots and twisted branches protruded into her skin from all angles: in her back, arms, neck, thighs and just everywhere._

 _Drowsy with half consciousness, Nya half wondered if she was still in a dream… but this discomfort and pain that had suddenly taken over her body only confirmed to Nya that this wasn't a dream – that this, was in fact, reality. Cruel, cold reality. And just like that, memory after memory flooded her mind – the one that stood out of the most from her disorientating kaleidoscope of memories was the one of Kai urging her to run- KAI!_

 _Disregarding all aches and the screaming protests that her muscles were wailing, Nya forced herself out of the bush. She immediately noticed how much eerie the forest was considering that the mid-day sun no longer shined above them. Now, long shadows were casted across the forest, causing dread to pelt into Nya's body._

 _Her amber eyes immediately scanned her surrounding environment, looking for anything that obviously didn't belong there while cautiously making her way to the very spot she could remember Kai standing on. Instead… She only saw his backpack._

 _"K-Kai?" Nya tearily called into the forest, her voice cutting through the silence and caused the hairs on the back of her neck to rise._

 _Not even a single bird made a sound. There were no crickets. No breeze to rustle the leaves. All it did was made Nya feel like she was suffocating and drowning in fear – fear for the fate of her brother._

 _The girl slowly bent down to pick up the tattered material of the bag into her hands, her breath becoming shallow as panic slowly started to seep into her body. Her amber eyes prickled with tears but Nya stubbornly blinked them back as she forced herself to look for Kai. She took a few shaky steps forward before her eyes caught sight of blood smears against some of the greenery._

 _Nya's breath hitched in her throat before she took off sprinting, up the steep slope where the blood smear trial led to. Once she came to the top of the slope, she froze for what laid before her was a nightmare of sorts… only more vicious and more lucid than the ones Nya had ever conjured up in her unconsciousness. For a moment, it was like time stood still, and everything got colder._

 _The girl took a shaky step forward, the simple movement costing more energy than it should but did that stop Nya? No. It didn't. Instead, she ran forward until gravity dragged her to the ground, right next to her brother._

 _"K-Kai?" She whispered, voice breaking appallingly._

 _She got no response, striking fear into her chest. He was faced down into the ground, his back on display… Along with the two blood patches that were located on his shoulder and the back of his leg. Nya hesitantly lifted her trembling hands, intending to roll Kai over but at the same time, she was petrified to… petrified to see if her brother was truly dead._

 _A tear fell down her grimy cheek when she finally resolved in rolling him over, to check if he was alive or dead considering her words were doing nothing to wake him up._

 _"D-Don't be dead… Please, don't be dead, Kai," Nya continued to murmur but a small cry escaped her lips when she rolled him over._

 _However, the sight that greeted her paralysed her instantaneously. In fact, it was a numerous amount of reactions: the throbbing that resided in her burning eyes; the ringing silence vibrating between her ears; the excruciating and erratic thump of her heart against her aching chest; the cold sweat that trickled down the middle of her spine. Yet… Nya couldn't tear her eyes away from the dead corpse that laid out in front of her… especially the numerous of cuts that covered the front of his body and the dagger that was planted into his chest._

 _The grief and anguish that attacked Nya was like no other. It came in waves… waves of a storm. It crashed down on her violently and harshly; engulfing her entire being and overwhelming her already tattered heart. It tortured her guts, churning her stomach in tense cramps. It invaded her conscience, knocking all her other thoughts aside… only to leave all thoughts and memories of Kai. The wracking sobs that Nya cried, were cried in a desolate way that made the forest seem impossibly more silent._

 _Nya's near-hysterical crying would only be interrupted when she needed to draw in and expel breaths, where the grief was easily evident. She cried as if her heart was being shredded from the inside… because to her, it really felt like it was. Emotional pain flowed out of her every pore._

 _Because… Because Kai was gone. Forever…_

 **.:Jay:.**

Jay sighed as he stared up at the ceiling of their dark dorm for the umpteenth time that night. In his sleeplessness, he was drunk on silence. For hours, it had seeped into his bloodstream, drowsing his mind with its thick toxicity. The usefulness of his thoughts left long ago, leaving fatigued neurones to fire almost randomly – flailing without direction.

There was so much Jay wanted to _not_ think about at all. All he wanted was to be absorbed into the peaceful world of slumber so he could wake up refreshed to start the following day with the sunrise exercise – completely unaware of the hours between then and now. But, like the previous nights, his mind did not grant him his wish to simply sleep.

Ever since the night of the ball (a week ago), sleep have been evading his mind. Instead, thoughts upon thoughts plagued his mind – thoughts of the pretty and rare smile of Nya… and the troubling thoughts of Kai. Since Kai had admitted to him, last week, that his parents were dead, Jay had tried everything in his power to be understanding and supportive. But like sleep, Kai was also avoiding him like he was the plague.

Jay sighed again. The tournament was in two weeks. Although Kai had been less talkative and avoiding him, the hot-headed boy still trained hard. Instead, Jay found that it was his own performance that was dropping. Between getting a couple hours of sleep a night and his thoughts always consisting of Kai or Nya, Jay often found his back to the ground in spars or obtaining injuries during their training. Lloyd confronted him about it earlier today, reminding him to keep his head out of the clouds.

Of course, his blond friend was absolutely right and Jay had tried, repetitively, screaming at his brain just to forget about the Smith siblings and get sleep; but of course, that never happened. So here he was, staring at the ceiling completely awake.

However, Jay became more alerted and possibly more awake when he heard a strained sound from his roommate. The boy rolled over and looked over to Kai's bed and was immediately concerned by the sorrowful expression that occupied his face. It wasn't just that either. Jay took notice of how Kai's breaths were erratic and how his hands were subtly clenching the bedsheets underneath him.

"Please, don't be dead…" Jay heard Kai murmured; yet, Jay could hear the raw desperation in his voice.

Timidly, Jay got up and headed towards his roommate's bed. The last three times (and the only times) Jay had to wake Kai up from a nightmare, the boy would bolt up and then close himself off. Jay didn't want Kai to close off completely from him but… he couldn't just let his friend suffer in this nightmare.

As he got closer, the blue-eyed boy frowned to see that Kai's eyes were now squeezed shut as his lashes were moist with tears. The muscles and veins in his neck were taunt while sweat excreted from his skin and made his messy hair stick to his face. Once Kai made a choking sound in the back of his throat, Jay went into action and shook his roommate awake… but like always, that was never enough to wake up Kai.

"Kai, wake up. It's just a bad dream," Jay exasperated as more of these choking sounds reached his ears and tears left the boy's eyes. "Wake up!"

Fortunately for Jay, that seemed to wake him up. The boy beneath him gasped awake before bolting upwards, harsh breaths pouring from his dry lips, wide -haunted- eyes moist with tears and shoulders shuddering. Jay only took a couple steps back but his eyes never left from Kai whose shaky hand relentlessly rose to go through his messy hair. He then bit down on his lip as if to stop himself from bursting into tears.

There was, without a doubt, that Kai's nightmares had to be linked to his parents' death… But the only possible solution Jay could come up with as to why Kai was so silent, traumatised and haunted would be… would be if his parents had died in front of him. This thought did not sit right with Jay at all.

So, wordlessly, Jay didn't pester Kai with any questions. Instead, he headed to the kitchenette and turned on the dim night life and immediately placed a kettle to boil. He frequently looked over his shoulder to see Kai was still trying to calm himself down. Jay could try comforting the boy but… Jay had a feeling that no matter what he said would make Kai feel better and hugging him was completely out of the question.

Jay mentally sighed as he looked down to the two tea cups he had yet to fill with tea. Thinking about it now, this was Kai's first nightmare since he had been drinking this tea… Unless he had a couple that Jay was never awake for. But he remembered watching Kai drink the tea a few hours ago… so why did he suddenly have a nightmare now?

Once the tea was made, Jay quietly went to his roommate who was now sitting on the edge of his bed with his face in his hands. Then, he held out one of the two tea cups.

"… Don't want it."

"Just drink it. It may put you at ease."

It felt like an eternity but Kai finally took the cup out of Jay's hand. The talkative boy went back to his bed and softly drank the tea while keeping a close eye on Kai, who only stared blankly at the floor while both hands were wrapped around the tea cup. Jay frowned.

"I didn't make it that hot… It's at a drinkable temperature," Jay softly said but Kai didn't even make a slight response or acknowledge if he had even heard his words.

With the umpteenth sigh of that night, Jay got up and slowly sat on the other end of Kai's bed. Heck, his hot-headed friend didn't even acknowledge this! If Kai was… well, back to normal, he would already be snapping at Jay to get lost. So this definitely concerned the boy.

"It was a really bad one… Huh?"

No response.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

No response again.

"… Was it about your parents?"

Jay carefully watched his roommate, only to see a tear quickly run down his face but Kai quickly wiped it away – as if slowly coming back to his senses.

"It doesn't matter…"

"It does," Jay insisted. "You're my friend, Kai. I just want to help."

"Why?" Kai muttered. "You don't have to help me."

"Do I need a motive to help you other than the fact that you're my friend and I'm concerned for you?" Jay questioned, brows slightly furrowing. "Why can't you just trust me?"

"Trust…" Kai muttered before bitterly laughing, a response that got Jay worried quickly.

"Kai…?"

"I've trust a friend before… And they betrayed me, so I apologise for not trusting you."

One would think that Kai would have spoken this with some sort of apologetic tone or sadness… but no. His voice was filled with bitterness and anger. His apology wasn't sincere at all… not that it bothered Jay. Instead, all of this made his head hurt. Could this trust issue and this 'friend' betrayal have any link to his parents' death? Were they… murdered and this friend withdrew information or something?

"I would never betray you. Heck, I haven't even told anyone about your sleeping troubles or your parents," Jay said very quietly, just wanting to calm Kai down first. "I respect that you want to keep your life hidden from us but… I just want to help you through whatever you're going through."

"… I don't want help."

"That's what you want… but is it what you need?"

"… I don't need help either," Kai answered. "I'm fine."

"But you're not-"

"I'm fine, Jay!"

Jay fell silent – and truth be told, a little hurt by Kai's outburst. He just didn't know what he was doing wrong. He didn't know why Kai wasn't seeing reasons to trust him… He didn't know what to do to help his friend and Jay couldn't help but feel this tremendous wave of guilt crash over him… guilt for not being able to help a friend.

"Okay…" He whispered, looking away from his roommate. But truth be told, he wasn't okay with it at all.

 **.:Nya:.**

Grief. It was a feeling that Nya knew all too well but most days, she had managed to keep it at bay, tucked away into the furthest corner of her mind… But some days, like today, it just come back at full force. Grief was the emptiness in the heart. It was the shear of nothingness that threatened to kill the soul of anything good. It gave this heavy feeling – so heavy that Nya felt like there was nothing she could do to get out from underneath it. It was a hole in her chest and all it made her want to do is wipe away any non-existent years she wanted to form but… but just couldn't.

A soft sigh escaped her lips as she sat on the roof of the academy. Her amber eyes watched as dawn besieged the stars. She watched how the sun rose victoriously into the atmosphere; the light consuming the sky with ferocity thus, returning it to its uplifting powder blue appearance. Wispy cotton clouds gradually accumulated high above, only adding to the blissful ambiance of the morning.

Again, to some people, the sunrise was a symbolic message of a new beginning, or the end of a dark era. But to Nya, it was just another sunrise. Just another day. Just another day living a pointless life.

Sometimes, Nya wondered what was the point of it anymore. She had lost her parents. Her home. Her brother. What else could life possibly take from her? What else could she possibly _do_ to make this any better? She made a somewhat close friend in Skylor but… but that wasn't enough for Nya to keep wanting to live this boring life in fear of being discovered as a girl or worse, discovered by her uncle.

To the right, in the distance, she could hear the unmistakable sound of thunder. Looking that way, Nya could see a fleet of dark clouds coming closer with promise of a storm to come. The old Nya used to love the water and the rain. The current Nya didn't like the rain. She hated the cold that came with it… the dark and gloomy feel of it – yet, she enjoyed the feeling of the warm water from the shower but that could never compare to how she _used_ to love the rain before.

Nya wondered what it would be like to still love the sun and the rain, and be able to dance with the breeze. When she used to love all of that was a long time ago… Now, time became measureless, and it dissolved into itself, as shapeless as the rain.

Curiously, she looked down over the edge of the roof. She was up a great height. It would be easy – to jump and end it all. End her misery and grief – end her pointless life. But if she didn't die from impact than she would be in a new world of misery, grief and _physical pain_. Plus… if she'd jumped, then Kai's sacrifice would have gone to waste. All he had done for her… would have gone to a waste if she gave into temptation…

" _Mum and Dad wouldn't want us to be grieving over them forever. They would want us to try and move on and be happy."_

 _His lips softly stretching into a smile but it didn't reach his amber eyes. They were lit with sadness; all the anger that Nya had seen was long gone. But she knew he was smiling for her, to try and reassure everything would be okay._

 _"You know I'll do anything to keep you safe."_

 _His eyes penetrated deeply into her own. They were so full of worry and… and fear. That, itself, scared Nya._

 _"You're my little sister, Nya. It doesn't matter if you want me to or not, as your older brother I'm going to protect you… Mum and Dad would want you safe."_

 _In life, Kai was passionate, protective and warm. In death, he was ghostly pale, lips already bluish. Though his eyes were closed, he didn't have the appearance of sleep. Crimson blood still exited from the numerous of wounds that littered his body. Dead. Dead. Dead._

 _"You can't keep remembering them by how we saw them last. You should remember them when they were at their happiest. It's not easy, even I'm struggling with it, but we can't let one image define them forever. They had good lives. They had goof memories with us like we have with them. They would never want you to forget those cherished memories."_

Everything Kai had said, he was right. Nya knew her brother would never want her to keep grieving over him, he would want her to move on and be happy… which was what he had always tried to do – he had always tried to make her happy even in dire situations. He had always tried to protect her… All that Nya wished was that he didn't have to die in the process…

Nya did try to remember Kai at his happiest… like his goofy smiles or his self-boosting of his 'good looking' face but… the image of his dead body was scarring.

" _We can't let one image define them forever."_

… Easier said than done.

"If you continue to stay up here, you're going to get caught out in the rain."

Nya gasped as she heard this voice. She quickly whipped her head around. She had somewhat expected it to either be Jay or Lloyd… but instead, she was greeted with the pale appearance of Zane.

"What are you doing up here?" Nya asked, feeling quite on the edge.

If Nya had to bet on which boy could easily see past her disguise, she would have betted everything on Zane. It wasn't because he was the smartest in the academy but there was something about him... Something that was screaming at Nya that told her Zane was more observant that the average person. Maybe it had something to do with his intelligent pale blue eyes… But there was something. Something that Nya couldn't put her finger on.

"Same could be asked of you," the pale blond replied before sitting down a couple metres away from her. "But if you must know, I normally come up here before the rain comes so I can watch it roll over the valleys."

"… Why?"

"To many others, people associate rain with sadness and gloominess," Zane explained, his eyes never leaving the rain clouds in the far distance. "But rain represents more than that. It is life as well for without it, nothing would grow. Look to the horizon; what is there between you and it?"

For some odd reason… Nya actually followed his words and allowed her eyes to wonder over the landscape that was between her and the horizon. There were dense patches of lofty forests; where a great river wound its silvery way through. To the left stretched a vast expanse of rich, undulating veldt or grass land, on which the girl could just make out countless herds of yak, sheep or cattle, at that distance she could not tell which. But just a bit further, she could make out the outlines of Misako's Academy for Young Independent Women.

"What you can see, it all exists because of water – because of rain. Without water, there would be no greenery. Without the greenery, there would be no animals. Without either of those, we cease to exist as well. Every time, I enjoy watching the rain clouds roll over the landscape, giving water to areas where mankind has not touched nor kindly tend to. It is just the beauty of nature," Zane explained in a soft voice, a voice that seemed less monotonous as he seemed to become engrossed into watching the landscape.

Nya couldn't help but stare at the boy. All she knew about Zane was that he was quiet, Cole's best friend, apparently good with long-ranged weapons and intelligent. She just thought Zane was the stoic, cold and calculating type… But he was actually soft-spoken, philosophical with such an interesting intake.

"How come you are up here?" The blond eventually asked, turning away from the sight to look at her… causing Nya to look back to the sun that mostly above the horizon.

"To clear my thoughts…" Nya murmured quietly.

After she had snapped at Jay a few hours ago, Nya left the dorm… and luckily, Jay didn't say a word against her for leaving. She just needed time to herself to calm down from that memory… the one memory she had so desperately wished to never revisit.

"You look like you have been here for a while. I take that it was a nightmare that cause you to retreat up here?"

"… You're too smart for your own good," Nya muttered, turning her face completely away from Zane.

"It is nothing to be ashamed about, Nya. People get nightmares all the time."

"Do you get nightmares all the time?" She challenged.

"… No. I do not but that does not mean I cannot try to understand," Zane kindly stated.

"I don't need you to understand for my sake. I'm fine."

"When people usually say they are fine, they usually are not-"

"I'm fine!" Nya snapped for the second time within a few hours. She turned her face to fully glare at Zane… but he didn't look scared or shocked. Instead, he was just calm.

"Nya-"

"I already said I'm fine!"

"It is okay to not be fine," Zane continued on anyway. "It is alright to break down, to cry and to have nightmares. It is a normal human reaction. Everyone is imperfect. You might not be able to control these feelings but you should not let them control you. At the moment, you are letting them control you."

"Am not!"

"You are too. You want to know how I know? For the last two times I have called you 'Nya', you have not reacted," Zane simply stated… causing Nya to gasp. "When you're upset and in immense distress, as you are now, your voice goes noticeably higher."

Nya couldn't believe it. She slipped up. In front of Zane – a person she was not friends with. A person she had no idea whether or not she could trust with this piece of information! Heck, if she had to choose a guy from this school to know, it would be Jay.

"But I have known you were disguising as 'Kai' for a while now."

"W-W-What?"

"Do not fret. I have not told anyone. Your secret is safe with me," Zane promised with a slight inclination of his head. "When we first met, I knew you were a girl disguising to be a boy. It was confirmed more to me when the others and I saw that picture of… well, you and your brother together."

"W-Why didn't you say anything if you have known for that long?"

"I knew you did not wish for anyone to know your secret so I thought it would be better if I said nothing."

"For four months?"

"Four and a half but yes. I have kept quiet about it. I guess Skylor knew and she had convinced you to go as yourself to the ball?"

"… Yes," Nya sighed with defeat. Great… Just what she needed.

"And I also take it that Jay does not know, despite being your roommate."

"No…"

"Take some advice," Zane softly said as he stood up. "You should tell Jay."

"B-But-"

"He is your roommate and a friend. You should tell him otherwise he is going to be hurt and who knows what will happen when he accidentally discovers you are 'Nya' when you are in distress from after a nightmare. It is better that you tell him yourself and promise him to keep it a secret than for him to freak out and blurt it out loud enough for the entire academy to hear."

And with that, he left…

 **Okaaaaaaay, SO SORRY FOR THE LONG UPDATE! I know I promised to get this one out two days ago but work have extended my shifts to eight and a half hours long so I was exhausted and couldn't update. Sorry guys but I hope the length could make up for it!**

 **But massive thanks to: RebelutionaryWrites, RandomDragon2.0, StreetDancingTT, Jaell, MortalNinja, Natalie Singe, EchoIsACutie, JSNI, Cerenda, unknown and all my silent readers!**

 **StreetDancingTT:** **Staying up til three in the morning? WHY?! I can never stay up that long hahaha. I usually wake up at four but fall asleep around nine or ten.**

 **Natalie Singe:** **Sorry, I know how desperate you were for Kai not to be dead but… yeah, I kind of planned for him to get gone when I first wrote this story – but your ideas were actually really good! I did try to think how your ideas would go but… came to some complications and to solve these complications mean an even longer story. Sorry.**

 **Cerenda:** **I know, it is sad that there are quite a few parents/ancestry issues in the show but I think it's kind of nice that these social issues are being addressed in the show – even if it's subtly.**

 **I also regret to inform you all that I won't be updating again next weekend about in a fortnight. Next weekend I'm celebrating my 18** **th** **so I won't have time to update. Sorry. But next time, I have a chapter that I know you all will be looking forward to, a certain something involving Jay and Nya. Until then, keep loving yourself – xoxo ZaneLoverFan88**


	14. Chapter 14 - Revelation

**Chapter 14  
Revelation**

 **.:Nya:.**

Hunger was such a funny little thing. Nya -of course- had experienced it many times while she was on the run. Her stomach was currently snarling, and from it came the not-so-subtle undertone of pain. It came in waves and it seemed as though her stomach was slowly digesting itself. It was a slow pain, eating away at her and leaving her feeling drained and empty. Nya wanted to clutch at it, pull it in a way as an attempt to silence it and to end the sensation but now was not the time to do so.

Nya panted as she swiftly dodged the metal of Lloyd's sword, her own had been disarmed a few seconds ago.

It was dinner time but Lloyd insisted that the two of them kept training considering the tournament was only four days away and this would be the only time the training dojo would be empty before it would become full with students wanting to cram in last training sessions. But, to make this spar 'more realistic to outdoor conditions', Lloyd had placed a whole bunch of random objects and benches on the training mat… And Nya already acquired numerous of bruises from tripping over them.

"You can't keep dodging forever. Get to your sword," Lloyd hissed as he went to strike again, leaving Nya no choice but to _dodge again!_

"You're not making this easy for me!" She snapped as she tried ducking underneath Lloyd's arm but his leg quickly prevented her from going forward!

"Neither will your opponent!"

"But you're one of the best in our class!" Nya snapped.

"Don't fight honourably like a samurai! Fight like a ninja!"

Nya rolled her eyes. Whenever Lloyd said to fight like a ninja, he meant look for openings and strike them but how could she strike an opening that wasn't even there?

Suddenly, Lloyd thrusted his sword out towards her. Nya was barely able to step to the side, missing the sword by mere inches but her hands were quicker. One firmly grasped Lloyd's wrist in a grip to prevent him from trying to nick her with the sword and the other one the edge of the handle. Then, she firmly pushed down, knocking the sword out of his wrist. She quickly grabbed it and poised it at Lloyd's own neck.

For many long seconds, none of them said a word or moved. They both were just panting. Lloyd looked mostly fine. He didn't seem tired but Nya knew she must look somewhat horrid. Probably really flushed and red in the face and her clothes damp with sweat- ewww, she could feel a drop trickling down her back. However, Lloyd grinned; making her drop the sword.

"Great move. I don't remember teaching you that though."

"Your father taught it a couple weeks back. Don't you remember?"

"Uhh, no," the blond chuckled as he scratched the back of his head. "Must have slipped. Oh well. But that technique is good if you're duelling against students with swords. If you happen to go against Cole who mostly fights with a scythe, you really have to look for open spots without your sword."

"But scythes are terrible to disarm swords," Nya reminded.

"I think we trained you _too_ good," Lloyd sighed while Nya gave him a quick pat on the shoulder.

"It's not a bad thing. Just means you and Jay are good teachers."

"And you're a good student. Either way, go and take a shower. You _stink_!"

"Thanks," Nya muttered sarcastically.

 **.::.**

It was said that two percent of time actually spent in the shower was spent on washing, eight percent was on singing and the rest, the ninety percent, was spent on making life decisions. Nya knew that this set of statistics were wrong… Well, at least to her since she didn't sing in the shower and she didn't spend ninety percent on making life decisions. Maybe twenty percent she spent on making decisions but the rest was just reflecting on whatever happened.

Although it had only been three days since her encounter with Zane Julien on the roof, Nya couldn't stop thinking about it. Not because she was infatuated with the guy but because of what he said and what he knew. She couldn't believe he knew since day one that she was in disguise. Just how many more boys out there that knew she was a girl but decided to keep quiet about it?

" _You might not be able to control these feelings but you should not let them control you. At the moment, you are letting them control you."_

Nya hated to admit it but… Zane was right. She allowed her grief and misery consume her that she had forgotten about staying in character around him. But not allowing your emotions to control you was a lot easier said than done. Nya honestly had no clue how to _not_ do that.

 _Maybe I just have to be on the roof when rain is about to come and ask him myself…_

Nya softly sighed as the pebbles of hot water caressed her skin as they made their way down. She hated depending on other people but Zane made a valid point… a point that she needed to fix up before she would stupidly reveal to someone else that she was a girl.

… Then there was the other point that Zane had made; the point that Jay was bound to found out sooner or later.

After the nightmare, she and Jay didn't speak at all in the dorm. The only times they would speak to each other was during training. It was putting a strain on their… friendship, but Nya couldn't face Jay. She knew that if they were to engage in a conversation other than training, he was going to ask about her parents or the nightmare.

But, _again_ , Zane was right. If she didn't tell Jay any time soon, how long would it be before she would have a really bad nightmare? One that would consist of her screaming or crying in her sleep and sounding _very much_ like a girl? Jay would know for certain and then who would know what Jay would do next. If she were to tell him herself, she would be able to have control over the situation and keep it calm… Jay might freak out a little but not as much if he were to discover it himself.

Normally, by the end of her showers, Nya would make a decision… Except this was the one decision she couldn't seem to make. She didn't want to tell Jay. Her philosophy was that the less people who knew her secret meant that there would be a lesser chance of her uncle ever finding out where she was. But… if Jay found out himself, things wouldn't end well. Even if Nya did decide to tell Jay, how? When?

The girl sighed as she turned off the water and stepped out of the foggy shower stall to wrap herself in a thin towel. She went towards the mirror on the other end of the bathroom and wiped it with her hand… however, she frowned when the condensation just fogged up the mirror within a split second. Well, she did take a much hotter shower than what she usually took.

Nya went to her clothes, prepared to put on the dreaded bindings and bodysuit but she paused first to realise that she didn't grab a new pair of clean clothes… Just the really sweaty ones from training.

"Idiot…" Nya muttered to herself before she slowly went to the bathroom door. "… Jay, are you back from dinner?"

Nya made sure to wait twenty seconds… Twenty _long_ seconds but when she literally heard nothing, she cautiously opened the door and stuck her head out to look into their dorm.

No Jay. Good.

Holding the towel tighter around her, Nya quickly darted out of the bathroom and to her dresser, quickly opening the drawers to gather a pair of clean pyjamas and underwear. She didn't feel comfortable _at all_ being in the open of her dorm in a thin towel that revealed too much of her feminine curves. Sure she was in here alone but she couldn't help but feel shy and nervous.

However, Nya came to a stop when her eyes caught sight of one of Kai's sweaters at the bottom of her drawer. After she had grieved over Kai in the woods, she somehow managed to pick herself up and leave him… after taking his bag and possessions. That was one of the hardest things Nya had ever done in her life. Although she wore Kai's clothes when disguising as him, there was one sweater she could never bring herself to wear.

She remembered Kai telling her it was his absolutely favourite sweater… why? Because it was the one she attempted knitting for him when she was at the delicate age of ten. Nya didn't understand why Kai brought it with them on the run. They both got clothes that would give them a low profile and be sturdy against the outdoor conditions… Yet this sweater was bright red and knitted loosely that if it were to get snagged on a branch, it would be damaged immediately.

" _I still don't get it."_

 _"Get what?"_

 _"Why you brought that ugly thing?"_

 _"Ugly?!"_

 _"Yeah. I made it when I was ten. Look at how awful it is. The sleeves are too long, the neck line is too big yet tight around the shoulders."_

 _"Hey, stop insulting my favourite piece of clothing!"_

 _"Favourite?"_

 _"Yeah."_

 _"Kai, it's hideous!"_

 _"I think it's perfect. It doesn't matter the outcome, it's about the effort that has gone into things. That's why I love it because I knew, at the time, you tried making this as perfect as you could."_

Nya sighed as she softly ran her fingers over the sweater, her eyes having a slight sting to warn her of the tears to come.

"I miss you…" She quietly whispered, feeling her hoarse voice break.

Nya gulped, trying to hold back the tears. She knew continuing to look at this sweater would only allow a horde of emotions to overwhelm her.

But just as Nya was about to close her drawers, she felt her blood run cold when she heard the door open and close behind her.

Within the timeframe of a split second, over a hundred profanities screamed into her head. How did she come up with more than a hundred? Let's just say that Nya could get very creative with her profanities.

And turning around and seeing a very stunned looking Jay caused another hundred to scream in her head.

"W-Wha- K-Kai? B-But… Y-You… Errr…" Jay spluttered, no coherent word flowing from his lips.

And to be bluntly honest, there wasn't a coherent thought that went through Nya's mind that wasn't a profanity. She didn't know what to do. The _one_ thing she didn't want to happen was happening in the worst possible way! Come on, what could be worse than Jay finding out while she only had a freaking towel!

Nya fearfully examined her roommate's face. There was the obvious jaw drop that stuttered with silent splutters, there was a twitch in Jay's eyebrow while his blue eyes were wide with shock. Then, Nya followed his eye line… And saw he was staring right at her cleavage.

"D-Don't keep staring!"

"Y-Y-You're not supposed to have those!" Jay blurted out, finally able to form words and point at her… or more specifically at her breast, causing Nya's face to blare bright red as she automatically grabbed the top of the towel and tried to cover herself more.

"And that gives you the permission to keep staring?!" Nya exclaimed, no longer bothering to disguise her voice. She honestly wished she had jumped off the roof and risk the chance of not dying on impact because spending months in a hospital would be better than this!

"You have breast?! You expect me to _not_ keep staring?!"

"Yes! It's called decency!"

"Wait, YOU'RE A _GIRL?!"_

Nya couldn't help but stare at Jay with a dumb-folded look on her face, embarrassment dialled down. Did Jay seriously thought that she was a guy with breasts?! Only _now_ he realised that she was a girl?!

"Yes, I'm a girl. Now keep your voice down," Nya immediately whispered, also realising how loud they have gotten.

"Keep my voice down?! Are you insane?! You're a-!" But before Jay could scream out another word, she had grabbed the styling comb off her dresser and threw it at Jay's face. "Hey!"

"Shut up, will you?!" She hissed.

"But w-why are you a g-girl?!" Jay exclaimed, much quieter than before.

"Why am I a girl?"

"Yes!"

"Because I was born that way?!"

"S-S-So you mean you d-didn't just have surgery or w-whatsoever?" Jay stammered, looking absolutely mortified.

"What? Of course not."

"Y-You've been a girl this w-whole time?!"

"Catch up, Jay," Nya muttered as she looked down to the ground… but she immediately looked up when she heard Jay give out a horrified gasp.

"S-So I've been changing in front of a girl this whole time?!"

 _Honestly? This is what he's most upset about?!_

Nya rolled her eyes as she made her way to the bathroom, no longer wanting to stand naked in front of this slow idiot.

"W-Where are you going?"

"To change."

"B-B-But I don't understand-!"

"I… I'll explain later. Just… Just don't go anywhere and not a single word to anyone."

She didn't wait for him to reply before shutting the door behind her. The sound of the door shutting echoed within the bathroom, almost imitating the sound of impending doom.

Nya didn't know whether or cry or to scream at the universe as to why it would always give her the worse luck. Her stomach was in a complete knot, churning and churning while threatening to bring up bile at any moment.

 _Get a hold of yourself. We can't change the past… All we can do is deal with the present and hope for a better future._

… Pfft, as if that had ever worked before.

But, Nya knew she had to deal with the problem at hand instead of crying or screaming about the fact that Jay knew now.

Nya knew that she couldn't tell Jay the partial truth like she had with Skylor because… in some ways, Jay deserved to know the full truth. She lied to him this whole time and while he wore a facial expression full of shock, she knew he was just as equally hurt. Although Jay was a talkative person, he wasn't a very open person either. She knew he wasn't a fan of losing friends – like him and Cole… So probably finding out that his roommate was actually a girl his whole time would have been a big blow… Heck, Nya had trust issues and if someone did that to her, she would definitely have no trust in anyone.

 _… Here goes nothing._

 **.:Jay:.**

It wasn't often that something could render Jay speechless. Heck, he always had something to say… or at least know what to say but know it would be better not to say it. But this?! The fact that Kai was a girl?! Jay didn't know what to think!

Kai- no! This _girl_ had been pretending to be a boy for nearly five months! Why?! It just didn't make sense! Why? Why why why?! Heck! Coming to think of it, the signs were so obvious but how did he miss them?

Kai never took his shirt off - probably to hide the fact that he - _SHE!_ \- had breasts! Then there were the monthly stomach aches! Maybe that was why Kai had 'feminine' curves to his - _UGH HER!-_ face! Did Skylor knew that her boyfriend was actually a _girl?!_

Jay was torn from his mental rant when he heard the bathroom door open. Instead of seeing Kai – broad shoulders, scowl, baggy clothes – Jay saw this different version of Kai that really shocked him. It was like the Kai he knew was stripped back. Instead of broad shoulders, he - _SHE!_ \- had more of a feminine curve to the shoulders. His - _ugh, come on,_ _HER_ \- arms were actually exposed for once. They were muscular and tone but they still retained the slenderness of a girl.

"Just tell me I'm dreaming. You can't possibly be a girl, right?" Jay asked, almost in desperation. Had his friend… been lying to him this whole time?

"I wish you were dreaming…" _She_ said, _her_ voice softer.

"B-But… Why?" Jay urged, looking up to _her_ face, the feminine qualities being more prominent now that he knew that he was staring at a _girl_.

"I'll explain… I promise. But I need your word that you can't tell anyone. Not even Lloyd."

"Why?"

"If you do, I'll have to leave."

 _Leave? A bit extreme isn't it?_ Jay thought as he looked at this… at this stranger that stood in front of him. But his damn curiosity was dying to figure this out.

"Fine, fine. Just who are you?"

"… You haven't figured it out yet?" She asked, almost shocked. "It's me… Nya."

Almost instantly, Jay's eyes widened as wide as they could possibly go. Everything single word had left him as he continued to stare at the girl in front of him… The girl who looked at him with amber eyes that held little life and energy left… Like the embers in a dying fire.

"Well? Aren't you going to say anything?" She questioned, arms folding over her chest.

If Jay wasn't so shocked, he probably would say something but, at the moment, he couldn't get his lips to move. It was like he was stuck underwater, everything slow and warbled.

"Please, just say anything," she exasperated.

"T-This whole time… It was _you?_ " Jay finally managed to asked. He almost cringed at the amount of hurt that laced in his voice… but he was hurt.

This person… he had tried so hard to be friends with. He had tried to offer her so much support and help, comfort and sympathy… Yet she couldn't even tell him the truth? It was like the Kai he had known had suddenly vanished… replaced by this stranger, _by Nya._

Heck… Jay felt like he didn't even know this person anymore.

"I have a good reason…"

"A good reason? Really?" Jay skeptically asked, a painful scoff exiting his lips as he slightly shook his head and looked to the ground. "So all the things you'd told me before is all a lie?"

"No. I told you some truths… Not the complete truth but close enough," she muttered, making Jay look back to her.

"And you're going to tell me the truth now?"

"Yes."

"The _complete_ truth?"

"Yeah…" Nya repeated.

Jay didn't know whether or not he believed her words. She had lied to him once before… and lied really well. What if she was lying again? What if she would deceive him with some other story? Heck, why was she even doing this?

All of these questions… All of these truths and lies... All of these revelations were causing Jay's head to pound and spin.

"… Jay?"

"I need a minute," he muttered before getting up and leaving the room.

 **.::.**

Jay remembered an old saying that Master Wu had once said in his first year at this academy.

 _"The saddest and most painful thing about betrayal is that it never comes from your enemies."_

… and it was true. In Jay's opinion, the worst thing about betrayal was knowing that it was done by someone you trusted… someone you trusted the most. As much as Jay loved to socialise with people, after the whole fallout with Cole, Jay only limited himself to a couple of close friends that he could count on for never falling apart… Even when things went bad.

Okay, not a couple of friends. Just the one. Lloyd.

Yet, when Kai came along, Jay couldn't trust him… But when he started to see Kai as a friend and got to somewhat know him better -even if it wasn't a lot- Jay started to trust him.

Maybe it was because he was so secretive that it made Jay realised that even if Kai did know something about Jay, he would have kept it quiet. Maybe it was also the fact that Jay knew that Kai had no friends and had lots of trust issues… but if he managed to entrust Jay in keeping quiet about the nightmares and the parents, then it meant that he would have no reason to betray Jay's trust.

… Yet why did knowing that Kai wasn't who he said he was betrayed Jay so much? Jay honestly shouldn't be… he and Lloyd both pointed out on the night of the gala that Nya and Kai were so alike… Meaning that the Kai that Jay knew was exactly the same as Nya. The Nya that had nightmares at night. The Nya that had a lot of trust issues. The Nya that probably wouldn't tell anyone anything.

Even so, Jay couldn't help but feel betrayed.

After countless of minutes of numbly walking around the academy, Jay eventually went to the roof of the academy. Before the fallout with Cole, Jay remembered Zane saying how the roof of the academy had to be one of the most calming and relaxing spots in the entire academy.

Jay had to admit, the odd boy was actually right. Sure it was high up but Jay didn't care. The breeze was tranquilising and the sight before him was beautiful. The sun sat half exposed on the horizon, its fiery colours linger on the sky as the sun began to sink.

"… I didn't know you were up here."

Jay jumped, nearly falling off the roof, when he heard his roommate's voice. He whipped around in a fright, only to see her standing there, looking down at her feet… but to his surprised, still dressed as… well… _not_ a boy.

"Do you have to scare the living daylights out of me?" Jay asked, stepping away from the edge of the roof. "Why are you up here anyway? And… still dressed as _that_."

He watched as Nya looked down at her attire before sighing.

"I thought that maybe you left to find Lloyd and tell him… So I came up here in hopes to clear my mind. You know, the calm before the storm."

"Well, I haven't told anyone," Jay muttered, turning his back to her and sitting down on the tiled roof before drawing his legs to his chest.

For a few seconds, only silence could be heard… apart from the distant sounds of birds and the occasional breeze. But, soon, the sound of footsteps reached Jay's ears and before he knew it, Nya was sitting down next to him… more like a couple meters to his right.

"… You have to understand that I couldn't tell you about this," she said softly but it didn't distract Jay from the sunset. "This is just a way from me to hide from my past."

"Your past…" Jay muttered bitterly. He couldn't help but still feel betrayed.

"I didn't lie about my parents," Nya whispered. "They are dead…"

"… But it doesn't make sense," he sighed, before finally turning to look at her. "Why dress up as a boy?"

"I wasn't lying when I said I would tell you the truth."

"But why now and not before?"

"… Because you deserve it after everything you have done for me," Nya softly said, her words shocking Jay. "I… I decided a few days ago it would have been best for me to tell you the truth… instead of you finding out but I didn't know how to go about it."

"Then I found out."

"Yeah… then you found out," she sighed, looking drained. "Look, this… this whole thing started when my parents died last year. They both went at the same time in a car accident."

"I'm sorry to hear," Jay whispered gently.

"That's not even the worst part."

The worst part. Jay didn't know what could possibly be worse than your parents' death because Jay knew, for a fact, that _that_ would definitely be the worst part in his life. No matter if they went from old age or murdered, it would still be the worst part.

"Since my brother and I weren't old enough to look after ourselves, we were placed into our uncle's custody."

"Your brother… The _real_ Kai, does he know about this?" Jay asked quietly as he gestured his hand to her and her 'get-up'.

"No."

"So why dress up as your brother, of all people?" He questioned, brows furrowed in confusion.

"I'll get up to that bit," Nya murmured, looking back down to her hands that were clasped over her laps. "Our uncle… He was a drunk and used Kai and I to keep running the family blacksmith store to pay for the house and for his alcohol… But he also found some kind of sick joy in beating me up."

Jay couldn't help but let a gasp escape his lungs as his face morphed into utter shock. It suddenly clicked in Jay's mind… why Kai/Nya seemed to flinch away from sudden movement when he/she first came here. Why he/she didn't take off the shirt… not because of scars from blacksmithing or kenjutsu but from physical abuse.

"Y-Your scar… It wasn't from w-walking backwards as your uncle pulled a sword out of the furnace…"

"No… It wasn't. He… He deliberately did it just because I talked back at him."

Jay felt sick. Really sick. Jay honestly thought there weren't people like that in the real world – just in movies and books. But to hear that there were people like that… that was sickening. But to then hear that Nya's _own_ uncle would do that to her was even worse – even more so just because she talked back at him!

Jay stared wide-eyed at Nya who only continued to stare at the sunset, her hand reaching over to her shoulder to grab at where Jay assumed was the scare.

"He did this for a couple months… Abusing me while threatening me to keep quiet about it and not tell my brother… otherwise he would have hurt Kai too. But, my brother eventually found out… so he started to pick more fights with my uncle just to protect me."

Jay then watched as she reached into her photo and pulled out the tattered photo of her and her brother – the real Kai. He watched as this sad and yearning look washed over onto her face… immediately informing Jay of how close she must have been to her brother and how much he cared for her to try and pick fights with his uncle just to protect Nya.

"Maybe after five months, my uncle threatened to Kai that he would kill me… so my brother got me in the middle of the night and we escaped."

"Kai- Nya, I can't believe you had to go through that," Jay whispered. "You or your brother."

"… It doesn't matter. It's in the past," the girl murmured. "Two months we managed alright… going from town to town while keeping a low profile to stay away from our uncle who we knew was looking for us. Kai managed to get in contact with an old friend of ours who was in Jamanakai Village. I was hesitant since it was close to where we lived, in Ignacia, but Kai assured me it was only for a few days… But Ronin betrayed u-us."

Nya paused, keeping her head down while her hand slightly squeezed the photo. Upon further inspection, Jay silently gasped to see tears making their way down her face.

"Apparently he owned my uncle a large debt… a d-debt he paid off by bringing u-us into his house where o-our uncle was w-waiting for us."

 _"I've trust a friend before… And they betrayed me, so I apologise for not trusting you."_

That was what Kai- that was what Nya had said to him. She must have meant this Ronin friend betraying them to their uncle. Heck, that just made Jay feel guilty for _feeling_ betrayed just because Nya kept this from him.

But, judging by the distraught on Nya's face and how her shoulders began to tremble, Jay had a feeling that the next bit was the worst bit to come.

"Kai and I ran… into a nearby f-forest but when Aidan isn't d-drunk, he has a good aim when it comes to k-knives."

"Nya, you don't have to continue," Jay spoke softly before scooting over to be closer to her, to reassure her that she had him… but she shook her head.

"H-He managed to get two into Kai over a far distance… M-My brother… K-Kai wanted me to go on and promised he would be right behind me b-but I argued, n-n-not wanting to leave his side. But Aidan g-got closer and Kai pushed me into the bushes so he c-could deal with Aidan alone… I-I knocked my head on the way d-down but when I c-came around… I-I-I found his b-body."

By the end of it, Nya was reduced down to a blabbering mess of tears that wouldn't cease from falling from her eyes. Instinctively, Jay wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close to his body… and she didn't bother to push him away.

"I'm so sorry… I really am," Jay whispered. "But… wouldn't dressing up as your brother bring back bad memories?"

"… It d-did as first. When I was left to be on the run a-alone, I knew my uncle w-wouldn't just stop with just Kai – he would come after me until I'm dead. So… I knew I-I needed a disguise, preferably male just to hide better. Then I thought K-Kai would be best; my uncle would think he's d-dead and this way, I could somehow stay close and c-connected with my brother… It seemed to be a great idea at the t-time but it just brought back painful m-memories. But… time went on and I just couldn't be b-bothered changing the whole look so… I just s-stuck with Kai. Then I had the c-crazy idea to apply here and only come if I get a full scholarship in… This way, I wouldn't h-have to be on the run and h-hide from my uncle."

"… And you kept it from me because you didn't want word to get out…" Jay murmured; Nya nodded her head.

"But… Skylor knows…"

"S-She does?"

"After fifteen minutes into knowing each other," Nya sighed. "And… And I found out a couple days ago that Zane knew since the very beginning-"

"W-What?! He knows?!" Jay exclaimed, pulling away from her before his brows furrowed in concern. "What if he tells someone?"

Nya had been through enough. Jay honestly didn't know how she went through it all… If that was him, he probably would have given up. That could be 'giving up' as in allowing to keep living a life full of abuse or… or give up life in general. It was, without a doubt, that Nya was strong as much as she was broken. She had made it this far… but that still didn't make it okay for her to keep enduring through things like this… things that Jay want to put a stop to immediately.

"He told me he wouldn't… I trust him enough to stay true to his word," Nya sighed. "But now you know… Please don't tell anyone."

"I won't, I promise," Jay immediately assured.

"Thank you…"

"Like I've said before, I only just want to help."

"Still, thank you."

 **Hi all! I'm back and feeling so much better and back to my old self… Well, mostly. I found that surrounding myself with the people I love and starting new hobbies really helped me through – so I'll stress that if you're going through depression or any mental help, always seek help! Always surround yourself with the people you love instead of pushing them away.**

 **But on another note, a not so great ending but I hope the length of the chapter makes it up for that! But massive thanks to everyone who have reviewed, favourited and followed, and even sent me encouragement messages (I don't know what else to call them): Jaell, RebelutionaryWrites, Natalie Singe, Guest, JSNI, Beatitude Girl, RandomDragon2.0, MortalNinja, Cerenda, EchoIsACutie, unknown, CuddleLover, TheKittenQueen, JC-17, Bananachild248, QueenofHearts7378, and all my silent readers!**

 **Cerenda** **: I hope that this chapter answered as to why Nya disguised herself as Kai and not some other random guy – in addition that she had Kai's bag with her so she had access to his clothes.**

 **CuddleLover:** **I have to admit, your review was probably the most entertaining (and difficult) review I have read in a LONG time hahaha. I'm so sorry for killing your heart, for making everything hurt, making you cry, a mess, and so on. Also, I love the chilli analogy! But don't worry, I'm planning on writing fluff soon to get rid of all of this angst. Now that Jay knows, let the romance begin!**

 **And to everyone, thank you for your support, loving words and patience for while I was going through this rough patch in my life. It really means a lot to me. I really love you all!**

 **Anyway, I've been working more than 30 hours a week so updating will still be a bit slow and I also have started a business! Well, sort of. As you may or may not know, I love to bake and decorate cakes and I have two people who have ordered cakes from me! It's super exciting as one of the cakes I'm going to make $120 but it has to feed 30+ people… So yeah, that's gonna be interesting. So both of these cakes are due in the next week and the half and I'm also in examination week so I may get to update in two weeks.**

 **But next time, on the next chapter, we get a look out how Jay and Nya will interact now that the secret is out and some fluff (because who doesn't love fluff?). I'll see you all soon - xoxo ZaneLoverFan88**


	15. Chapter 15 - Solicitous

**Chapter 15  
Solicitous**

 **.:Nya:.**

 _'Sometimes wearing a mask for so long can make you end up forgetting who you were beneath it.'_

When Nya heard this for the first time from Master Wu's mouth when he was explaining an ancient tale, she thought how could someone possibly forget who they were? Like she could remember how she used to be before her parents had died – a bright and intelligent girl. She had the memories to prove it so she immediately dismissed Wu's quote as false… all up until Jay had discovered that she was a girl.

Maybe what the quote meant was that you forget _how_ to be the person you were underneath the mask. If Nya had the choice, she would do anything to be the old her – the old her that was bright, happy and unscarred. The old her that had her parents and her brother. But… with those three people gone, how could she ever go back to being bright and happy? Even doing some of the things she used to do back then now, she would never find joy from it. Just like the rain – she used to love it and the way it sounded and felt against her skin. Now, she hated it for the cold and gloominess it brought.

… Although Nya didn't know how to be her old self, she knew Jay was desperately trying hard to… well, she guessed make her not gloomy and depressed.

Two days had passed since Jay made the discovery that Nya was a girl and the dynamic of their friendship had shifted drastically. Never had Jay treated her like she was a frail leaf bound to crumble apart when a breeze passes by. He didn't keep asking her if she was okay, but instead, he just said if she ever wanted to talk to him about something, she could. He wouldn't force her to opening up about something if she wasn't ready to.

He also treated her nicer… which only meant less teasing from him. However, this didn't mean that he went easier on her during training which only made her more grateful. The only thing that had changed since he knew about her being a girl was allocated shower times and so on because he never wanted to walk in on her again and she _definitely_ didn't want him to see her partly naked… even though that was a one-time occurrence.

But, Jay had also somehow managed to start conversations that Nya could easily tap into, yet it wasn't related to anything of her past. He was actually pretty good at avoiding the whole past thing. Now that Jay knew… well, most of the truth, there was no more reason for them to really talk about it.

"Okay, next question," Jay mused before flicking through the flash cards in his hands. "Who is the founder of Airjitzu?"

"Master Yang," both Nya and Lloyd answered in a heartbeat.

It was two days until the start of the tournament. Since every single team were trying to fit in physical training in the dojo, Jay and Lloyd both collectively decided that they would just focus on the non-physical elements of the tournament for these last two days – such as riddles, trivia questions, stealth and team trust exercise…

Yeah, Nya sucked at that last one the most. They did the simplest thing too… but just on another level.

Yesterday, one person would have to climb a tree about a storey high and then simply let go and trust the others to catch them. Despite knowing that they were down there and Nya was the last one to be caught (so she had seen and help catch the others), she would not let go of that tree – no matter how much coaxing Jay did as well.

"Correct. In the myth Sensei have told us about the Golden Ninja, what were the entities that would show that the Golden Ninja have been supposedly selected?" Jay questioned.

Nya looked to Lloyd and Brad. The blond had a frown on his lips with his brows slightly creased as he thought about the answer while Brad was silently muttering to himself. Nya just rolled her eyes as the seconds passed and neither seemed to come up with the answer.

"The Four Golden Weapons of Spinjitzu."

"Eh, I just needed the Golden Weapons so extra points to you for that," Jay laughed before looking at her dead-set in the eyes. "Can you name the weapons?"

"There's the sword, nunchucks, shurikens and scythe."

"But which element?"

"Uhh…" Nya murmured, mind momentarily blanking. "Sword of Fire… Scythe of Earth…? Uh… Nunchucks of Lightning and Shurikens of Ice?"

"It's actually Scythe of Quakes," Lloyd corrected.

"Why? The four elements of creation are fire, lightning, earth and ice. Why quakes instead of earth?"

"We're not Master Wu, don't ask us," Brad simply stated as he leaned back on his chair. "But can we go now? It's ten at night. I still got to finish off an assignment to hand in tomorrow."

"Just another few minutes, I want to finish these flash cards before any of us go."

"Can't we just do them tomorrow?" Brad asked with a groan.

"No, we already decided tomorrow we'll focus on stealth and team trust again until Kai can finally let go of a tree," Lloyd sighed. "Proceed, Jay."

"Okay… Master Wu have told us there are sixteen realms, Ninjago being one of them. Who can name me five?"

"Five? Ugh, kill me now," Brad groaned.

"Isn't your assignment on one of the realms?"

"Yeah, one! I disregarded all the other ones except the Underworld."

"Well, there's Cloud Kingdom," Lloyd started. "The Cursed Realm and the Departed Realm."

"Points go to Lloyd. A third of a point to Brad. Kai, can you at least tell me one?" Jay asked.

Although Jay knew she was a girl now and that her name was actually Nya, he sometimes still called her Kai when they were alone… which, to be honest, didn't bother Nya that much. All it meant was that it was less of a chance of him addressing her as 'Nya' in public or even in front of Lloyd and Brad.

"The Realm of Oni and Dragon."

"Good! Now… oh, we're on the last question."

"Finally."

"This one is a hard one and I'm pretty sure this will be a question Wu will ask, but who can tell me history behind the Destiny's Bounty, it's creator, owner and twin?"

"Are you kidding me?!" Brad exclaimed. "That's way too hard of a question for Master Wu to ask us."

"Knowing my uncle, he _will_ ask that question," Lloyd sighed. "But… we learnt that tale a couple years ago."

"… Not really," Nya sighed. "Don't you remember?"

"Kai, if you know the answer, just say it so we can go. Don't dwell on it," Brad immediately pleaded.

"Fine. The Destiny's Bounty was created by a mechanic called Monk; however, he didn't just work on the Destiny's Bounty, he was working on the Misfortune's Keep as well. However, a Djinn came to the island Monk resided on and grant him his wishes – Monk wanting to be the greatest mechanic in all of Ninjago, so it was as if the tools were a part of him so he can get it all done quicker. The Djinn twisted his words and granted his wish, turning him into a mechanical monkey… I think he was named Monkey Wretch afterwards. Anyway, after that, he managed to finish both ships but set sail with the Djinn on Misfortune's Keep and left the Destiny's Bounty behind which then got taken by a band of pirates lead by Captain Soto, but sometime later, it crashed and resulted the death of the captain and the crew-"

"Awesome tale. Kai, you're awesome. Now bye!" Brad exclaimed before picking up his bag and dashing out of Lloyd's dorm, making the other three sigh.

"Well… At least Kai knows that one well so if my uncle is to ask anything relating to… whatever Kai had just said, we'll be fine," Lloyd concluded. "Now both of you get out. I want sleep too."

"How nice of you," Jay snickered before picking up his stuff, Nya following. "Night, dude."

 **.:Jay:.**

Jay watched as the one-fifty-nine on his alarm morphed two o'clock while a little red dot on the bottom corner blinked on and off to signal the excruciating slow seconds that passed. His clock used to tick but he disabled it since the ticks seemed to make time slower than what it was currently! Jay was convinced that the glowing numerals were slower than the actual time.

Once again, insomnia haunted his nights while fatigue ruled his days – but of course, he tried to not let that show. He had his studies to worry about, the tournament that was right around the corner, and making sure he was there for Ka- Nya whenever she needed him.

Jay shifted his cobalt eyes away from the digital clock and looked to his roommate's bed where she slept underneath the blankets, back to him. It was kind of bizarre that knowing your roommate was a girl… but not a girl at the same time. Whenever they weren't alone, she would always adapt her 'Kai' voice and then when they were alone, she would speak with her high 'not boyish' voice because Nya still didn't have those typical super high and bubbly girly voices. She didn't talk about girly things nor did she even act like a girl-

Jay's thoughts fell silent when his eyes spotted Kai - _Uh, he meant Nya_ \- roll over in her sleep, facing towards him. Despite the distance and the dark, he could see there was a small frown on her face. It made Jay wonder if she ever had a pleasant dream after the brother's death… or even after her parents'. He knew that the chamomile and lavender tea he had given her no longer worked since she was back to having nightmares as of a week and a bit ago. Most times, he would wake up (right after finally being able to fall back asleep) to hear her tossing in bed, murmuring in her sleep, or already awake and with tears streaming down (never had he _heard_ her cry); however, there had been times when he would wake up and she was still asleep.

When she didn't have a nightmare (unless she did and he was just never awake for it), would she have a pleasant dream? A weird dream that made no sense at all? Or a memory?

Jay's curiosity had been skyrocketing higher and higher with each passing day since the discovery. He had so many questions for Kai - _Ugh, Nya-_ regarding her past and even asking her a few about her acting like a boy in an all boys' school, but he held his tongue back and kept quiet about it instead. After hearing all the crap that Nya had been through, Jay didn't want to her think of any of those bad memories. He wanted to help her move on with her past instead of staying in it. By move on, he didn't mean forget it but to let it make her stronger and be confident in herself… but that would be hard to do with a psychopath uncle-

His attention was back on Kai - _Nya! Come on, you should be getting this right by now!-_ when her body started to toss and turn in her blankets, her head leaning back as much as possible into her pillow. Broken breaths escaped her lips, along with small cries and whimpers.

According to the agonisingly slow clock, it took Jay less than half a second to be out of his bed and by her side.

 **.:Nya:.**

 _Nya held her trembling hands to the wound, but no matter how much pressure she applied, the blood still gushed between her fingers and seeped under her hands. Her amber eyes fearfully watched as the thick liquid spread in Kai's red shirt, darkening the bright red and turning it into a brownish hue._

 _"K-Kai! Please!" She wailed, desperately shaking his body whilst still applying pressure. "Come back to me!"_

 _Nya pleaded for him to wake up, for him to stay with her; yet, she knew the life had already been drained from his body… but that didn't stop his voice from echoing in her head._

 _"Save me, Doc. Don't let me die!"_

"Kai, you gotta wake up."

 _But although his voice was echoing in her head, his eyes that once danced with light were now vacant, staring into the thin space above. His lips and mouth that were so quick to smile to reassure her lied stiff, agape and cold. His healthy and slightly dirty complexion was waxy and pale, making the dirt smears more prominent. The strong arms that used to hold Nya when she was distraught or lonely and used to keep her warm were now limply arranged on the ground._

 _"You let me die."_

 _"I'm trying, Kai! I am!" She sobbed as she pressed her hands harder onto his chest._

 _"You're not saving me. You already left me to die."_

 _"I'm not!"_

"Kai! Kai- Nya!"

Nya gasped awake, thoughts accelerating to flood her mind with the painful memories of Kai and his lifeless body. She wanted nothing more than for all these flashbacks to slow down, just so she could get some space to breathe but… they wouldn't.

Her breaths came out as gasps to accommodate for her hammering heart that pounded agonisingly against her chest. Her lungs were constricting, yearning for air yet, no matter how deep she gasped, she couldn't get enough to fill out her lungs as for every breath she inhaled, it was exhaled with every sob that came from her quivering lips.

She bolted upwards, in hopes that it would make it easier for to breathe but all it did was made the room spin, making her head pulse with every pound her heart gave. It didn't take long for nausea to jump onto the bandwagon of 'how-to-make-Nya-feel-worse'.

 _He was gone. Kai was gone… Gone. Dead. Kai was dead… forever._

 _Forever._

"Nya…"

Nya felt herself completely froze when a pair of arms wrap around her body and brought her close to a chest. For a moment, she had stopped crying, stopped trembling and her thoughts had stopped. On pure instinct, her muscles went taunt as very fibre of her body was screaming to get out of whoever's arms she was in – if it wasn't Kai's, then she wasn't safe.

"Shh shh shhhh. Don't be scared. Just focus on my voice, okay?"

Hearing Jay's voice was enough to send Nya's mind into a whirlwind. She opened her amber eyes and through the tears, she could just barely make out that she was in the dorm she shared with Jay… who was currently hugging her.

"Good," he gently murmured before one hand moved from around her back and to one of her hands that was clutching the bedsheets and guided it to his chest while still holding her tight to him. "Now, do you feel the way my chest is moving?"

When those words left his lips, she suddenly became conscious of the soft yet steady thud that thumped beneath her hand. She could feel the warmth that came with it and the softness of the shirt… nothing like the cold, thick and oozing blood of Kai's wound…

But, she also felt Jay's chest rise and deflate with every strong and steady breath he took. It just consistently moved under her hand with smooth movements – nothing like the erratic rise and fall of her chest to accommodate to her gasping and choppy breaths and cries.

"Feel that? Now breathe with me, in time with my chest. Do you also feel my arms around your shoulders? Grounding you?"

She knew what he was doing. He was trying to get her to concentrate her senses on reality and away from her dream… like Kai used to.

 _"Just breathe, Nya. Count five things you can see, four things you can hear, three things you can touch, two things you can smell and one thing you can taste."_

So… she did. At first, every deep breath she took make the invisible noose around her neck tighten… but with given time, she could feel the oxygen flood into her lungs, reliving the pounding sensation in her head and chest while the cries ceased. Now that she could breathe, she concentrated on her senses.

Looking through her senses, she could see that she was still pressed up against Jay, her head against his shoulder. She could see the blue fabric of the shirt he wore to bed and over that, she could see the faint outlines of their dorm – the kitchenette, the bonsai tree that was in the corner of the kitchenette, the drawn curtains at their window, and the Jay's bright blue underwear in the corner of the room. She could hear Jay's steady breathes while also hearing hers trying to steady themselves, along with the faint birds and crickets from outside. She could still feel the steady heartbeat of his underneath her hand while his arm was gently squeezing around her, radiating warmth into her body. She could smell the fresh-laundered smell from his shirt and his honey-milk scent from his soap. As for taste, she could taste the saltiness from her tears that ran over her lips.

Nya felt the tense and rigidness in her body pour out from her pores. Her body finally relaxed into Jay's hug, trying to remember every aspect of it to keep her mind distracted from her dream. While her one hand remained on his chest, the other one moved to wrap around his torso to bring her closer and steal more warmth.

She knew that this couldn't compare to Kai's hugs. In his hugs, she felt more warmth, his muscular and protective arms would wrap around her tightly and her body would perfectly mould into his as she relaxes. With Jay's, it wasn't anywhere as warm, as tight, or as familiar but it was enough to ease her and to make her believe she was safe.

"Better?"

"Yeah… Thanks," Nya murmured but she didn't let go… and neither did he. "Sorry if I woke you up…"

"You didn't. Even if you did, you don't have to apologise," he reassured her in a soft voice, his hand releasing from hers just so he could hug her with both arms.

"… You're always awake whenever I wake up," Nya quietly said, pulling her face away from his shoulder but still remained in the hug. She looked up to his face and saw the dark bags under his eyes. "You look like crap."

"Really? I get told by the girls from Misako's Academy that I'm cute," he lightly joked, a small grin at his face which somehow got Nya to release a small wet laugh. There he was, distracting her mind from her past with a fun conversation she could easily tap into.

"Well, I'm not from Misako's Academy, I'm from Wu's."

"Lucky there's only one girl in Wu's then."

"Yeah, otherwise I wouldn't know how your self-esteem would handle having too many girls not calling you cute."

"Neither do I," Jay chuckled. "Maybe turn out gay like Dareth. I mean, I'm pretty cute for guys' standards, right?"

"Hmmm… Nah, not really."

"Your words wound me!"

Instead of laughing, Nya stiffened, all mirth vanishing from her face. She knew Jay's words only meant to light her up but… she couldn't help but remember Kai.

 _"You worry too much. You're going to get so many wrinkles and grey hairs at this rate."_

 _"All these so called wrinkles and grey hairs would be entirely your fault."_

 _"My fault? Your words wound me, little sister."_

She was snapped out of the brief memory that happened just before Ronin's betrayal when she heard Jay worriedly call her name. She looked up to see his concerned blue eyes looking down at her with a slight crease between his brows.

"S-Sorry… Just remembered something with Kai…" She muttered before looking back down but she felt Jay's arms tighten around her.

"Hey, that's okay," he immediately assured. "It's completely okay."

And with that being said… Nya found herself trusting Jay, trusting his word that it was okay… that remembering her brother and dampening the mood despite Jay trying to fix it was okay – that Jay was there for her no matter what.

 **So sorry if this chapter seemed rushed in the beginning. I didn't even think about doing the first half. I just had the second half done and I liked how it ended and didn't want to add what I had planned for the next chapter earlier so… you got this rush first half. _BUT I also want to apologise for the two chapter 15 updates but no actual chapter. Fanfiction have been playing up on me for the last two weeks, just for logging in yet when I tried to update (upon using a different browser), it converted my chapter to coded text when it uploaded. It was unreadable so I tried reloading the document and THEN try to update again but the same result so I just took it down.  
_**

 **ALSO: It has crossed my mind that how I'm doing Wu's academy as a boarding school is probably not how a boarding school work. I went to a public school in Australia where we barely have any boarding schools so I'm just doing what I think is right – although I'm starting to think that I'm doing it all wrong. So I apologise for that and hope you all can overlook this terrible mishap in this story!**

 **But massive thanks to everyone who has reviewed, followed and favourited: EchoIsACutie, A Huge Fangirl, Jaell, HHQFandoms, RandomDragon2.0, JSNI, dragonpearlninja, Natalie Singe, unknown, and all my silent readers!**

 **EchoIsACutie: Awwww, I honestly do not deserve this praise from you! But thank you so much anyway for your kind words. Now about the review thing, you can only review once per chapter. I deleted my author's note chapter and replaced it with Chapter 14 but the reviews from the author's note remain – so that's probably why you couldn't have reviewed before. AND YAS! I love that episode from Avatar! It was so cringy but hilarious! But yes, I did get a little aspiration from that. **

**A Huge Fangirl: WHAT?! I mentioned Jaya instead? Oh whoops xD Thank you so much for letting me know, I'll go back and try to find it haha. **

**Next up (which I'll try to post next weekend) the tournaments commences! Will our favourite team win their first round or will they lose to their rivals: Cole, Zane, Griffin and Gene? Until next time! Xoxo – ZaneLoverFan88**


	16. Chapter 16 - Enervate

**Chapter 16  
Enervate**

 **.:Jay:.**

No matter how hard Jay had tried, he couldn't forget the look in Nya's amber eyes when she had tearily looked up to him after her nightmare last night. He could remember the warmth that used to be in those beautiful orbs had suddenly froze over with grief and misery, like the surface of a winter puddle. It was like you could see the water underneath, yet still have that layer of ice that separated the water and the crisp air… Like how Jay could just see Nya under all the torment and anguish she had been through.

Although he had seen a side of Nya that had been tormented, the side that cried at night and stayed emotionless through most parts of the day, Jay reckoned he had seen a side of Nya that had existed before her whole life had flipped on her. It was vague and subtle and could easily be overlooked but Jay was certain he had seen some aspects of the old Nya.

Like last night, he had managed to have a small teasing banter with Nya! Like sure, Nya had bantered before with him, Lloyd and Brad but that was as Kai. The difference? Nya was a bit smug and mostly teased with a smirk but last night… she was smiling genuinely. Then there was the time that they had danced at the ball – Jay remembering every single curl to the beautiful smile that plastered Nya's lips as he spun her around on the dancefloor.

Yet… Nya's anguished eyes still stayed in his head. He knew Nya, the happy and old Nya, was still in there – he knew it… But he also knew that even if he were to reach in and tell her life wasn't just misery but good too, she wouldn't believe him. Jay wanted nothing more than to rekindle her spirit and fire, but her insides were too damp with uncried tears that Jay didn't know how to wipe away. He just wanted all of Nya's pain to just vanish.

"Jay…? Are you still in there?"

Although things were a little awkward this morning after the hug, Jay noticed a shift in Nya… He didn't know what, but Nya was… more open. He didn't know how to explain it, but he noticed that she conveyed a little more emotion than what she normally did. When they were getting ready to meet up and train with Lloyd and Brad, Nya told him a couple stories of Kai.

Jay would have thought that it would've taken him months to finally get Nya to trust him a bit more before sharing such intimate and personal stories but, after four days of him knowing, she was telling him. Maybe the hug last night had an influence on this. Was he complaining? No. Of course not. All it meant was that Nya was slowly trusting and opening up to him – but that didn't mean she was already on the way to finding peace with her past-

"Jay!"

" _OW!"_ The boy couldn't help but yelp but as pain blossomed in his left cheek.

Jay looked up, eyes narrowing and ready to glare at the assaulter… To only find Nya and Lloyd snickering in the background while Brad look smug. It wasn't hard to tell that the black-haired kid was the one behind it.

"What the heck, dude?"

"We tried getting your attention for the last five minutes. Let me guess, you were daydreaming about making out with Dareth?"

"Ew! Gross!" Jay immediately blanched, making the others laugh harder.

"Is your head out of the clouds now?"

"Of course!"

"Good," Lloyd commented, stepping forward and resting a hand on Jay's shoulder. "Because my uncle is about to kick this off."

Immediately, Jay's blood buzz with excitement but, at the same time, nausea to swim in the depths of his stomach.

"Afternoon students," Wu immediately introduced, silencing everyone.

All the boys and the staff of Master Wu's Academy for Boys were all outside. Massive wooden bleachers were set up in a semi-circle, all facing the small podium that Master Wu was standing on with a microphone in his hands. All the boys that weren't participating, about one hundred and fifty, were all on the bleachers with teachers occupying the first bottom row. The twenty teams that were participating where all lined up behind Wu, which allow the boys who weren't participating get to see the teams that were competing.

"As you know, today is the first day of the tournament. Now, unlike previous years, this tournament won't go on for ten days but eleven to accommodate to the extra teams this year."

"Eleven days?" Brad whispered, just loud enough for the four of them to hear. "Can't they just eliminate more teams with one round? Instead of bottom three, it's bottom five?"

"Maybe the teachers also had a hard time deciding which ten challenges we should do," Jay simply shrugged.

"Over the course of these eleven days, there will be eleven rounds – at the end of each round, one or more teams will be eliminated from the tournament. These challenges can range from endurance, intelligence, stealth, memory, team trust, fears, innovation – and of course, the crowd favourites – the obstacle challenges and the sparring ones. Some of these challenges may acquire the whole team to compete, or for one member to be nominated to represent the team. Like always, you won't find out what the challenge is until right before the challenge starts. However, teams may receive a hint on what the next challenge is if they win the previous one. Not all winners will receive hints on the next challenges. The winning prize will alternate between hints and handicaps."

"Will we get told that's what we'll be winning?" Nya softly asked, her voice still masculine.

"No. Once we win, Master Wu will pull us to the side and either tell us the hint, or he'll say we have gained a handicap that will be revealed to us right before the next challenge begins," Jay replied.

"Now, behind me, we have twenty teams. I won't read out the names since we do have a larger group this year but most of you should know them anyway. So, with that out of the way, we'll begin with the first challenge: endurance."

Endurance. Jay knew their team was… well, individually, they were above average - all accept Nya. It would have to depend on what endurance. Running endurance or any endurance that required the most physical movement would really be her downfall since she would overheat too easily – and Jay now knew it was because of the muscle suit she wore underneath to have that masculine body shape.

But Jay's attention was taken away as Sensei Garmadon and a couple other teachers walked towards the teams with drawstring bags in their hands. They handed one bag to each group. When Lloyd was given the bag, they quickly huddled around and saw four cement disks inside – each about an inch thick and the diameter of a basketball.

"And how is this endurance?" Brad scoffed as he reached in and slightly grunted when taking out the cement disk.

"I remember Ash telling me about this challenge when he was a junior," their blond friend murmured as he also picked up the disk. "We all have to stand in a circle and hold the disk between us with only our hands. It's all shoulder and back endurance… and it doesn't help that these are heavy and that we have to hold them vertically… so no bottom support."

"So pretty much we're all in a circle, facing each other, and holding a very long high-five but with a cement disk in between the high-five?" Nya asked, causing the blond to nod.

"Greeeaaaat," Jay sighed.

Yeah, they did not train for anything like this.

"And the worst part is that if one person fails to hold up both arms, you lose two of the four disks," Lloyd continued.

"So… how screwed are we?"

"… Not that screwed."

 **.:Nya:.**

For an endurance competition, Nya thought all teams would last up to ten minutes… maybe two teams dropping out after five minutes. Boy, was she wrong…

A team immediately dropped out before a minute – apparently two members couldn't hold a disk between them securely which then dropped and set a rippling effect throughout the team. Maybe a minute after that, three more teams had dropped. Many more had dropped a disk or two only.

For their team? They were struggling bad. Jay had strategically placed them so that in clockwise, it was Lloyd, Jay, her, then Brad. Why not her and Brad between the more experienced members? Well, if she and Brad were to go out early, then Jay and Lloyd would have no choice but to go out early. With them being next to each other, they could still have one disk standing.

It didn't help that they were outside, with the crowd of non-participating students shouting and cheering, with Borg commentating which teams and members have dropped their disks, and they were under the hot sun.

Nya slightly grimaced as the pain between her shoulders were starting to become unbearable. She could feel her shoulders and arms burning and trembling to keep the disks up but it didn't help that she could feel Brad struggling on her left and keep lowering the disk so that it wasn't shoulder-height but torso-height… making the strain on Nya's left arm worse.

She quickly glimpsed over to the disk between her and Jay. They both somewhat managed to hold the disk at a comfortable height and distance between their bodies to accommodate to their height difference and arms' length – that didn't necessarily mean things weren't difficult. Heck, the one thing that Nya had a hard time in making sure the disk didn't fall between her and Jay was the amount of sweat excreting from her hands-

"Gah, Kai, I don't think I can hold this one any much longer," Brad winched, attracting the rest of the team's attention.

Nya looked and saw how Brad was awkwardly bent at the knees, trying to angle their disk so it could lie horizontally on his hand and hers on top but even so, his arm was struggling to continue lifting the cement disk.

"Let go of it," Lloyd grunted, making Nya see how this new position Brad was getting himself into to keep his and hers up was making it harder for the disk between him and the blond. "Just focus on the one between us then Kai can focus on the one with Jay."

"Okay," Brad muttered before quickly retracting his hand back to his body and the cement disk fell with a heavy thud.

Nya immediately dropped her left arm which felt as heavy as the disk – nevertheless, she focused all her attention onto the disk between her and Jay.

A few minutes passed, marking it the ten-minute mark. More than half of the teams had dropped all their disks, and there wasn't a single team left that still had all disks. Cole's team had already dropped one disk, just like them… although they weren't faring any better.

Nya was struggling. It was hot despite it being middle of autumn. She could feel herself overheating drastically with the muscle suit - which was nearly drench with sweat. Although she wasn't moving a lot, her breaths were harsh as she solely concentrated on the disk between her and Jay. It was beginning to tremble since her arm was struggling to stay up, and even Jay's arms had a slight tremor as he kept up the one between them and the one between him and Lloyd!

"Y-You're doing well," Jay slightly grunted, readjusting his slipping hand on the disk. "If you need to drop, you can do so."

"I'll be fine," Nya lied. Sure, she was probably never going to make it to the end, but she knew she still got another minute of so within her.

"W-Well, I feel horrible for saying this, but I-I don't think I can keep this up," Brad hissed.

"What the heck? Kai is the one with the worst endurance here, not you," Lloyd commented. "Come on, you got this."

"We never did endurance like this! I need out."

"Then go out, we'll be okay. Gene looks like he's about to go out as well," Jay informed, making them all look towards their biggest rivals and saw the ginger was trembling as he tried to hold his disk against Cole's.

"Okay, I'm out," Brad winched before stepping back, the second disk falling.

"Alright Jay, all up to you," Lloyd said. "If you drop both, we're out."

"I know."

"If you feel tired, then give up one arm and used the rest of your-"

"Lloyd, I'm not retarded."

"Okay okay-"

Suddenly, a massively loud collective of gasps and screams exploded. Nya frantically looked over her shoulder, her body immediately on alert for danger – something that had become a habit after spending so many months on the road. However, Nya searched the source of the screams and saw that Cole had dropped both of his disks.

But due to this massive outbreak of noise, it broke the concentration of many people – including Lloyd whose disk fell, resulting a fury of profanities to spill from his lips.

"It's fine," Jay tried reassuring him. "Kai and I got this. Right?"

"Uhhh, yeah," Nya nervously murmured while watching Lloyd walk a few steps away to join up with Brad.

"Hey, we got this," Jay assured again, diverting her attention back onto him.

"My endurance sucks."

"No, it's going to be great because I know it. Just direct your attention from it and stay firm."

"Direct my attention away from the burning agony in my arm?"

"Yeah. Easy peasy." Jay said, earning a scoff from her. "What? It's true. Do you want me to say some jokes or something-?"

"No. Your jokes are awful."

"Ouch… That's a little hurtful."

"Well… The truth hurts sometimes."

"Tell me about it- ah," Jay winched.

Her eyes immediately observed the sudden tension between Jay's shoulder and neck, the obvious discomfort on his face as his spare hand go to hold his left shoulder. Since it wasn't going to assist it in lifting the disk, they were fine. However, Nya could feel a pain blossoming right in her shoulder as well.

"You guys got this!" Lloyd tried cheering but Nya could only watch as Jay shook his head.

"Heh, who was I kidding? We can't win this. Zane is literally like a rock."

Upon mention of the peculiar boy, Nya craned her head around and saw he was holding the disk between him and Griffin with relative ease while Griffin struggled a little.

"Hey, what happened to 'we got this'?"

"It remembered that Zane is a rock."

"And what? It just ran away?"

"Uhhh, more like backing down from a fight it knows it can't win against?" Jay sheepishly answered, making a small smile tug at Nya's lips.

 _Why are you being so traitorous recently, lips-?_

But a sharp hiss escaped through Nya's clenched teeth when she left the muscle in her right shoulder spasm, sending lightning-like shocks rushing down her right arm and back, before the muscle completely constricted into a tight cramp. Immediately, she felt the disk starting to fall between her hand, but she quickly bent herself by the knees (since competitors weren't allow to step closer to their partners) and with great difficultly, angled her wrist so she could support the disk horizontally… but even so, her shoulder was screaming and it spread to her lower back.

"N- Kai!"

"I got this!" She snapped.

"No, you don't. Zane and Griffin are working too much as a solid duo, you're just going to end up hurting yourself-"

"Jay, I got it!"

But she could only hear a sigh from the boy as he purposely knocked the disk out of her hand. Following this was gasps and screams from the crowd and the distant hoots of Cole, Griffin and Gene celebrating… since really, both teams were really competing against each other – not the other eighteen.

So many emotions swelled up within Nya, emotions that she couldn't properly grasp onto. She was angry. Sad. Annoyed. Disappointed… disappointed in herself. The girl could feel her chest heave with these emotions as she tried to take in deep breaths of air. She dropped to her knees, defeated and head casted low so no one could see how her eyes were beginning to water.

 _Great a grip on yourself! You can't cry over this! You're acting pathetic at the moment._

She yelled these words at herself but… for a moment, she wondered if they were truly her words or her uncle's.

"Hey," she heard Jay say, followed by a soft thud as he crouched in front of her and placed his hands on her shoulders. "You did well. Don't beat yourself up over this."

"But I should have done better."

"Doesn't matter if you should have or could have done better. It has all been already done. Think on the brighter side – we didn't go out last. In fact, we were one of the last few teams standing. We did well."

Nya could only grumble, disappointed in herself.

 **.:Jay:.**

Losing the first challenged sucked. It sucked big time. Did he blame his team? Of course not! If anything, Jay wished that they would have done endurance activities similar to this. But the reason why it sucked losing the first challenge was because it made Cole believe that he had the better team. Heck, they did win the challenge by a split second – Griffin dropping the disk after another group did.

It left a bitter taste in Jay's mouth when he remembered the way Cole smirked at him as everyone made their way back inside of the academy – that smug smirk that easily translated to: 'You're going down this year'. Jay knew, for a fact, that he had a strong team. They all have weakness and strengths that balanced the others out. But… seeing Cole with that smirk just infuriated Jay.

The boy sighed as he laid on his bed, staring at the unique patterns the paint made on the roof. It was still the afternoon, only an hour after the tournament. He took his shower first since Nya was still harsh on herself, so now she was in the shower.

Jay had to admit, he really did think she would have been the first one to go out on the endurance – so the fact that she didn't really made him proud. Not proud as in the way a sensei would feel towards his student… but as a friend. Proud that Nya managed to overcome it all and push herself further. How she didn't allow her past to interfere in her concentration. Proud of her determination. Just everything.

He didn't want Nya to continue feeling disappointed in herself and take blame to the reason why they lost. He wanted to talk to her and change her mindset, but she just wasn't in the talking mood… and the fact she was taking forever in the shower. Jay knew girls took long showers, but he knew Nya didn't take that much of a long shower.

Maybe minutes passed when the girl finally exited the bathroom, dressed in loose clothes but no muscle suit. Jay immediately took notice of the way she avoided his eyes; how low her head was cast and how she had her left hand trying to massage her right shoulder – the shoulder that held the disk with him and the shoulder he knew she was branded on.

"Is it bad?" Jay asked, sitting up on his bed but the girl only shook her head as she opened the cabinets in the kitchenette.

"It's fine."

"You… uhh… did kind of pushed yourself a bit today. It's alright to admitting its sore."

"I told you it's fine. It's nothing that a little heat can't fix," she simply stated, getting a wheat pack and chucking it into the microwave.

"You don't need to keep telling me lies, Nya," Jay sighed. "You can put down your defences around me, I won't judge. You know that."

"… I know," she eventually whispered. "Just… Some habits die hard."

"That's understandable. So how bad is it? Judging by how you completely crippled under the pain of it today, I'm taking it's not that great."

"I'll definitely be feeling sore tomorrow," she admitted quietly, "but it'll be okay. Some heat and a massage will be good for it."

Despite saying all of this, Nya still kept her back to him. Jay might be a little oblivious to some things, but he knew for a fact Nya was still trying to play it tough. He could see it by the taunt in her neck, by the slightly hesitation of her left hand that was massaging into her upper shoulder – unable to reach lower.

When the microwave pinged, Nya reached in and placed the pack onto her shoulder. Jay observed how her body double over with the new pressure added onto her shoulder, but she simply said nothing and just walked over to her bed and laid on it, stomach down.

"You're not very good at convincing me," Jay said quietly as he stood up from his bed.

"Once the muscle is all warmed up, it'll be easier for me to massage it out and the massive knots that formed."

"You can't even reach."

"If you think I'm going to let you massage it, you're dreaming."

"So I'll let you suffer in pain and continue to be sore into tomorrow's challenge and let us down again?" Jay hotly fired – of course, not meaning anything he said but he knew when it came to Nya, she was stubborn, and the only way to deal with it was to fight fire with fire.

It seemed to do the trick though. She fell silent. Maybe after a few seconds, she turned her head, her amber eyes settling on him.

"I didn't mean to let the team down."

"I know, and you didn't. I just said that to make you listen to me," Jay softly confessed as he crouched down by her bed. "Now I promise not to do anything weird. I just want to make sure you're all good for tomorrow's challenge."

The face of hesitation stayed on Nya's face for a good minute until she finally nodded and firmly planted her face into her bed… only then did Jay realise what he was about to do.

He was about to give her a massage… He was going to give a massage to a feminine shoulder. To Nya's shoulder. To Nya's shoulder that had been through abuse before.

Jay honestly had no idea what to expect. Should he expect her to completely lash out as a self-defence mechanism? Or would she remain still? And how would her shoulder feel without the padding and stuff?

"The longer you take, the longer I regret my decision."

"R-Right," Jay stammered, feeling nerves pelt into his bloodstream.

Heck, he really needed to think things through.

Nevertheless, he moved the hot wheat pack to the side while getting seated on her bed, next to her body. He placed his left arm over to the other side of her body to give him leverage before placing his right one upon her shoulder, his thumb pressing slightly onto the muscle. He felt her flinch on the bed but made no moves to attack him. A good sign.

He pressed a little hard and immediately met a knot underneath the skin, which then earned a sharp intake of air.

"Just breathe."

"What do you think I'm doing-?" Nya bitterly muttered before groaning as he rubbed a circle on the knot while applying pressure.

Her whole body was tense, but Jay could only focus on the warmth her skin emitted through the sweater she was wearing. Despite the knot, the tense muscle and the sweater, he could feel that she had a soft yet firm plushness on her shoulder. But once that knot was done, he moved lower on her shoulder and rubbed out many more knots.

Time passed and Nya's grunts and groans dulled out to deep breaths and a small moan here and there. Her tensed body eased its tension – until he directly pressed upon another knot. Jay could feel a discomfort in his thumb, but he never ceased… that was until one particular knot didn't want to come undone. The hardened muscle underneath just wouldn't go soft no matter how long he spent on it.

"This one is stubborn."

"Yeah, I can feel it. Just apply more pressure."

So Jay did, by climbing onto the bed and slightly kneeling over her to get a better angle to apply more pressure. All this did was extract a loud groan from Nya.

"Too much?"

"N-No, that's good – but I can feel your thumb kind of slipping all over the place."

"Well… The sweater is taking the friction away."

"So go underneath it then."

Those words made Jay's face turn bright red. Although he was a hormonal teenage male who didn't have completely innocent dreams at night, the thought of slipping his hand through the neck hole of Nya's loose sweater to massage her _bare_ shoulder made him nervous. _Very_ nervous.

He gulped but timidly allowed his hand to go through the very loose neckline of Nya's dark grey sweater and onto the soft and smooth skin of her bare shoulder. He felt Nya tense under his touch… probably also just realising what exactly was going on, but she made no comments. So, he proceeded.

He moved his hand over her skin to towards the knot he had struggled with… only to pause when his hand no longer felt smooth skin but something rough, wrinkly and abnormal. Jay didn't take notice he had stopped, his touch still lingering on Nya's scar until she moved her shoulder.

"S-Sorry…"

"Don't be. It's not your fault," she murmured flatly.

Yet, as Jay continued to massage her shoulder, the feeling of her massive scar wouldn't leave.

 **Wow… it had been nearly three months. Uh, I guess I should start off with sorry? Yeah, super sorry everyone that I've been gone for a while. Reasons I was gone was because I got into a relationship but recently it ended… So yeah, I'm back to writing to distract my mind. I hoped the chapter was good though, I think I rushed it and that the ending is horrible but here's the chapter!**

 **Anyway, massive thanks to: HHQFandoms, Jaell, A Huge Fangirl, unknown, Natalie Singe, EchoIsACutie, JSNI, AuroraRain18, , Nightlybirdie, musicalwatcher99, Musica Masaharu, IAmAnOakTree and all my silent readers for reading, reviewing, favouriting, following and being patient when the fanfiction was playing up when I uploaded the last chapter!**

 **Jaell:** **Haha, they will kiss soon, I promise!**

 **EchoIsACutie:** **Yeah! I didn't know the story as well! And never be sorry for the shorter review! I enjoy them all all the same.**

 **AuroraRain18:** **Thanks for all the reviews! LOVE YA! As for the action writing, it comes with practice, I promise. I did all my practicing for the action writing in a fanfiction story I haven't posted yet since that's just a personal story for me.**

 **This time, I won't promise to update next week but I definitely promise that I'll try! But, will our favourite team be able to defeat their rivalry in the next round? Stay around and look out for my chapter update and you shall find out! (Along with a 'maybe' kissing scene in the next chapter *wink wink*).**

 **Until next time! Xoxo – ZaneLoverFan88**


	17. Chapter 17 - Bereavement

**WARNING: The first 250 words of this chapter contains an explicit make out scene. If such scenes make you uncomfortable, please scroll more until the italicised text is over.**

 **Chapter 17  
Bereavement**

 **.:Jay:.**

 _Jay moaned as he placed Nya on the edge of her desk, pushing off the books blindly as his entire attention was on the girl in front of him. She devoured his mouth brazenly, pushing her tongue desperately into his mouth as her fingers flew to his coppery hair and fastened themselves deep within the strands. Jay groaned deeply as he returned her kisses just as fiercely. His ears could hear the moan Nya released when he pushed her tongue out of his mouth before taking her mouth possessively in a passionate and promising kiss that had them panting and pressing against each other._

 _It didn't take Jay's hands long to undo the buttons on Nya's grey blouse then to open the clothing item to the side just so his hands could feel the small waist he had felt when he danced with her. Jay swallowed visibly as he felt her bare, warm, waist under his palms and fingers that trembled with his need._

 _As they continued to kiss frantically, their hands divested the other of their clothing before roaming the other's body – grasping and caressing as though they would never get enough._

 _Jay's hand eventually gently entangled in Nya's chestnut hair. He softly pulled her head back as he started to spread desperate kisses across her face, down her throat-_

"Jay, come on, wake up."

Normally, it would take quite a bit to wake Jay up whenever he was having a dream – but, he was actually so relieved he woke up instantly when Nya woke him up. Why? Well, when he opened his eyes and came around to the world of the consciousness, Jay was on his back with his pillow in his arms and his lips firmly against a wet patch on his pillow.

"Ah!" Jay shrieked, throwing his pillow across the room before wildly turning his head to the right to see Nya -already dressed up as her brother- snickering. His face flared red upon the sight of her. "How long was I doing that for?"

"A good minute," she chuckled. "If it makes you feel better, I caught you making out with your pillow a couple times before."

"What?!" He squawked, sitting up.

"Yep, and you got a situation going on as well," Nya commented as she twirled a single finger towards the middle of his bed. When Jay looked down, he swore he could see his own face radiated bright red.

"Ahhh!" He exclaimed before quickly scrambling out of bed and straight into the bathroom.

Despite the echoing sound of the door slamming shut echoed in their small bathroom, Jay could still hear Nya laughing. As much as he had tried so hard to get her to laugh -like genuinely laughing!- he did _not_ want her to laugh over something like this!

Jay felt embarrassed. Humiliated. He didn't need to look in a mirror or even a blurry reflection to know that his face was currently as red as a beetroot and radiate heat like a hot pan – so hot that he could have cooked a three-course meal on his face. There had never been a moment that he wanted the earth to open up and swallow him whole as bad as now.

Why?! Because Nya freaking saw his erection! An erection caused by having a dream of making out with her!

 _Think gross thoughts! Think gross thoughts! Yes! Remember the time when I walked in on Mum and Dad having- UGH! NOT THAT GROSS!_

Jay groaned, hitting his forehead against the wall and slumping against it. He looked down to his pants and was relieved to see he was no longer excited after his dream…

Yet… He couldn't stop thinking about that dream.

Maybe his crush on Nya from right after the ball was coming back at him with full force. Maybe that was why he dreamt that dream of her… Or maybe it was his teenage hormones torturing him because he actually had a girl sleeping in the same room as him.

"Jay, come on! We got twenty minutes until we have to be in the courtyard and we still haven't had breakfast yet."

"… The courtyard for what?"

"The next round. Duh."

"Oh-!"

Profanity.

 **.:Nya:.**

Nya couldn't help but let her amber eyes watch as the grass flattened in waves with each gust of wind, only to spring up as fresh as a bunch of flowers right after. It was nothing like the uniform green of the meadow back home that almost looked combed… yet Nya couldn't help but feel longing to be back home, back in Ignacia. Back with her parents. Back with Kai. Back when her life was happy.

"As you all have guessed; this next challenge is riddles – so thinking outside of the box rather than trying to fill it with facts. For every table, there is a Borg Tablet, supplied by our very own professor Borg. When the challenge begins, a question will come up on the scene and the team will have one minute each to figure out what each riddle means before the next question will come up."

"Hold up, a minute?" Brad whisper immediately drew the attention of their team.

Nya looked over to the dark-haired boy and truth be told, he looked pretty worse for wear. Not only was his body posture was screaming at them that he was still sore from yesterday's challenge but the circles under his eyes were nearly as dark as his hair. His hair was a mess and his shirt was actually inside out. She knew better than to ask. She had saw Lloyd give a small nod to Jay during breakfast but didn't mention anything of it to Brad… Perhaps she could ask Jay later.

"Yeah… Didn't it used to be three minutes? Your uncle asks the hardest riddles ever!" Jay exclaimed in a whisper towards Lloyd's direction, to which the blond just shrugged.

"Like I have mentioned many times before, I don't get told anything! Maybe the riddles are easier this year?"

"Maybe…" Jay sighed.

"Don't worry about it," Nya softly said, drawing their attention, while also trying not to draw attention from the teachers. "We'll make do."

"Hopefully," Brad muttered before tiredly rubbing his hands over his face.

"Hey, if you need to sit out, you can," Lloyd gently murmured, resting a hand on the boy's shoulder but Brad shook his head.

"I'll be fine. I promise…"

"Brad, it's-"

"I said I'm fine," Brad hissed, quickly pushing Lloyd's hand off his shoulder.

Nya quickly looked over to Jay, but the boy was just staring at the other two, with a hint of sadness on his face.

Yeah… she definitely had to ask Jay what was going on after this.

However, once she heard Master Wu start counting down from ten, the girl sat up straighter and positioned herself to get a better view of the tablet. That was when the other three boys also huddled around.

"Three… Two… One… Go!"

Immediately, the dark screen of the tablet lit up to a soft blue colour with the riddle question in black text.

 _'_ _Name an eight-letter word that has 'kst' in the middle, in the beginning, and at the end.'_

"Oh," Nya immediately said. "That's easy."

"Easy? You call that easy?!" Jay groaned.

"It is! It's just a trick question. It's Inkstand because 'kst' is in the middle, 'in' is the beginning, and 'and' ends the word."

"Oh… So the riddles are easier this year," Lloyd sheepishly said. "Great, so we just wait for the next one."

 **.::.**

"At least Cole, Zane, Griffin and Gene didn't come first…"

"Yeah, but they still ranked higher than us."

"We'll just have to get our act together and beat them for the next few rounds."

"Hopefully…"

The four of them headed were currently walking to Lloyd's room to try and organise new strategies. Lloyd and Jay walked ahead, discussing about their loss to Cole's team once again. Nya and Brad hanged back a little, which allowed the girl to observe the gloomy boy once again.

Brad walked with a slight drag to his feet, leaving long shuffled sounds against the wooden flooring of the hallways of the academy. His hands were stuffed in his pockets, shoulders shagged with invisible weight and his head casted down low where his dark bangs covered his face.

The more Nya observe him, the more she saw herself in him… after her parents had died… after Kai had died. Then it occurred to her that maybe this morning, Brad had received word that someone close to him have passed?

"Brad, Lloyd, you wanna head in first? Just need to talk to Kai really quick," Jay said, drawing Nya's attention from the gloomy boy next to her and to Jay, who was standing in front of Lloyd's dorm.

"Yeah, sure," the blond simply replied with a shrug of his shoulders as he entered, beckoning Brad to follow him.

"… What do you want to talk about? And just letting you know, talking out here in the hallway isn't that private," Nya muttered, as she looked down the hallway to see other students entering their dorms.

"It's about Brad… I thought that maybe you would want to know what he's going through at the moment," Jay ended up sighing, pinching the bridge of his noise. "Remember how I told you that Lloyd knew Brad beforehand and pretty much begged me to let him be our newbie last year?"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, he and Brad had been… I guess distant childhood friends. Like they would see each other from time to time because of their mothers. But the reason Lloyd really wanted him in our team last year was because Brad really needed the scholarship. His mother got diagnosed with cancer so having the scholarship from winning the tournament can really help Brad out at home."

"… And this morning he heard news his mother lost the battle?" Nya asked quietly, to which Jay nodded.

It made sense… Nya could remember times when Brad would always ask to leave training early to finish up on assignments that were due the next day… Probably because he would have been stressed from the news of his mother.

"Shouldn't he be going home then? To be with his family?"

"I guess but from what I heard, Brad isn't going to join them. I'll have to ask Lloyd. He'll know more about it."

"So Brad is going to continue on with this tournament? Despite all of this going on?"

"Lloyd did try telling him he could sit out… but we both saw he didn't want to do that. Maybe he just wanted to stay to try to distract his mind from it all?"

"Most likely…" Nya murmured.

"Well, that's what's going on at the moment. Thought you would like to know."

"Yeah… thanks."

 **.:Brad:.**

No matter how hard he had tried to, Brad couldn't get out the soft voice in his head that would comfort him or offer words of encouragement. He couldn't get out the twinkling gaze of the hazel eyes that would brightly stare at him while the body that they had belonged to deteriorated away. He just couldn't get her out of his head.

The thought about never hearing this voice again or seeing those eyes full of life made Brad's stomach churn with nausea… to the point he barely uttered a hoarse 'excuse me' to his team at the dinner table and just walked out of the cafeteria. He just had to get away from all of the excited chatter of students, of students who probably never experienced what he was experiencing. Who have never experienced the emptiness in their hearts, the numbness taking over their body, and the shear nothingness that would take a hold of their souls.

Eventually, Brad's feet led him to the courtyard in front of the academy. He numbly dragged his feet over to one of the benches and sat on the cool wood. Then, he propped his legs up to his chest, arms holding them close, and looking up to the night sky above.

" _You see all those stars up there?"_

 _"_ _Of course, Mum. I'm not blind."_

 _"_ _I know. But, for every star that's up there, is a life that has passed. A loved one that'll always watch down on you."_

 _"_ _Mum… You are aware that stars are just balls of gas and all those lights that we see could be stars that have already exploded billions of billions of miles away?"_

 _"_ _Look at my young man, all smart and intelligent."_

 _"_ _Muuummmmm…"_

 _"_ _Well, you can think they're balls of gas but I still like to think they are loved ones looking down at us."_

Brad used to think that those words from his mother were stupid… but he had never wanted them to be so true until now. He just wanted a way to just be able to stay in touch with her… Just… Just anything.

"… Brad?"

The boy immediately jumped at least a metre in the air before frantically looking around to see who had snuck up on him… to be surprised to see Kai, of all people, standing there. Not Lloyd. Not Jay. Kai.

"Kai? What do you want?"

"Mind if I sit?"

"Uh… Go ahead," Brad mumbled, regaining his composure and wiggling down on the bench to allow more room for Kai to sit.

The silence that followed immediately made Brad feel uncomfortable. It made his blood as cold as the autumnal air that brushed passed them. His eyes would constantly flicker from the night sky then to Kai's face, where the boy would only look straight ahead at the glassy plains, blanketed in the dark of the night.

Was he going to say anything?

Was he waiting for Brad to say something?

Did he just come out here to see the view?

Brad sighed as he stood up without a single word uttered from his lips. He came out here to be alone. Not to be accompanied by a silent somebody. If that was the case, he would have gone back to his dorm to his roommate who normally wouldn't say a single word to him.

"Brad, sit back down," Kai calmly requested.

The dark-haired boy looked down to the hothead and saw that his amber eyes were piercing into his own hazel ones. There was a certain firmness in those eyes… Maybe it was also because of the way that Kai's brows had furrowed but he still didn't emit any hostility or anger… So it made Brad sit down.

"… What do you want?" He asked quietly, his head casted low.

"Just to talk."

"Why?"

"… Because I've lost both of my parents as well."

That immediately made Brad look up to Kai.

He barely knew anything about Kai. All he knew was that Kai was hot-headed, but he was also smart and great when it came to samurai swordsmanship. He used to work in his parents' blacksmith store. He was the lucky guy who got to date Skylor.

… But both of his parents were dead as well?

Brad took back what he said earlier… about students never experiencing what he was experiencing, about them feeling emptiness, numbness and nothingness. It was quite obvious that Kai did with the loss of _both_ parents… Was that why he was quite irritable? Why he was distant? Why he kept quiet about his past?

"You lost both…" Brad murmured.

"Yeah," Kai muttered, a slight hesitation to his voice.

"Can I ask how?" Brad asked.

"… Car accident," Kai murmured, his eyes moving to stare at his hands.

"I'm sorry to hear…"

"Sorry doesn't change anything. Like me saying sorry about your mother isn't going to bring her back or make you feel better, right?"

"Y-Yeah," Brad said with a frown, realising the cynical truth to Kai's words.

"But… someone have told me some things which I think it needed to be heard by you," the brunet sighed. "My br- sister, she told me after our parents' death that they wouldn't be wanting us to still remain solemn and in grief over their deaths. Instead, they would want us to try to move on and be happy, live our lives to the fullest."

"Easier said than done," The younger boy muttered.

"I know. Even I'm struggling to come to terms with the deaths of my loved ones but… I still try."

"But… Isn't that basically trying to forget them?"

"No," Kai answered curtly. "Never ever forget your mother, Brad. Forgetting her will cause you to forget a part of yourself. But at the same time, when you do remember her, don't remember her by how you last saw her. Jay told me she had cancer… So don't remember her through that, but instead, remember her for all the good memories you have made. It's not easy… I can still vividly remember my parents' bodies in the caskets, but we can't let one image define them forever. They had good lives, good memories with us, like we had with them."

Brad watched carefully as Kai's face morph into one of utter devastation, with a dark haunt lingering behind those amber eyes. It made Brad question whether or not if there was more to Kai's past. Could it be someone else who was close to Kai also passed away?

But suddenly, Kai's face quickly faded of emotions. A hard look came over his face before quickly getting up.

"Look, I'll let you go back to your own thoughts. When you're in grief, you need some time alone. Just remember what I said tonight, okay?"

"Y-Yeah…"

"And… if you need the day off tomorrow from the challenge, Lloyd, Jay and I will understand."

And without another word, Kai walked off.

 **Okay, really short chapter compared to all the other chapters but I promise that next chapter is going to be long! Like 5000 words plus long. I've gotten it written already but I still need to make major adjustments for it and edit it. But also, thank you everyone for your support. I'm honestly all okay – I was the one to end things even though I didn't want to. I was super upset and hesitant but he turned around and suddenly accused me of stuff so, yeah, not upset. Just mad now hahaha. ANYWAY WHO CARES ABOUT MY PROBLEMS?!**

 **But massive thanks to: HHQFandoms, Endeavor16, RandomDragon2.0, JSNI, Jaell, Nightlybirdie, A Huge Fangirl, unknown, Natalie Singe, EchoIsACutie and all my silent readers!**

 **Sorry for not replying to reviews but I got work in an hour so I just want to update this before I have to get ready. But, will our favourite team be able to** ** _FINALLY_** **defeat their rivalry in the next round? Will Brad still be able to compete with this new burden on his shoulders? All will be revealed next week with a new chapter!**

 **Until next time! Xoxo – ZaneLoverFan88**


	18. Chapter 18 - Despondency

**Chapter 18  
Despondency**

 **.:Nya:.**

A strained and small grunt escaped as a small sound from her lips. Nya knew she wasn't the only one struggling. She looked to either side of her, seeing Jay and Lloyd also struggling – Lloyd the most.

For a moment, Nya didn't really know what was worse; this endurance challenge or the first one with the discs. Actually, stuff that, Nya knew for a fact that this endurance challenge was a lot worse.

The third challenge was that all four members of the team had to hold heavy sandbags that were ten kilograms (twenty-two pounds) above their heads, which was also tethered to a water-filled trough that was built on a frame directly above them. If someone were to get tired, they could pass their sandbag off to a teammate to get circulation and blood flow back into their arms before retrieving their sandbag back, but if a teammate were to be done completely and drop out, the remaining competitors would have to carry their weight too – because if one of those sandbags were to drop, the trough would tip, and poor water all over the remaining team members. In other words, the team would be out.

It had been fifteen minutes since the challenge had started. At first, Nya didn't struggle at all. Ten kilograms wasn't much… but as the minutes passed, the sandbag got heavier and heavier. At the moment, her legs were shaking and beginning to struggle to support her own body weight _and_ the sandbag. Pain rushed through her body like an igniting fire, causing Nya to slightly arch her back to also relieve the building up pressure in her lower back.

Nya squeezed her eyes shut, her face also contorted. Never had she experience this kind of ache that just spread all throughout her body. She was truly pushing her body beyond its limits within a short amount of time – and again, it didn't help that they were underneath the hot sun and Nya's muscle suit was making her overheat and sweat easily, which then the suit absorbed the sweat and weigh heavier.

By this fifteen-minute mark as well, only four of the remaining fifteen teams were left in the challenge. Their team, Cole's team, and two senior teams. Fortunately for them, the senior teams had two players out, the remaining two holding two sandbags each and struggling tremendously. Cole's team, Gene was already out. Zane seemed to be doing well – again. Cole held two bags and seemed to shake slightly while Griffin seemed to be really struggling.

Them? Brad went out within the first couple of minutes of the challenge. Despite Nya telling Brad last night to take today off, he persisted he did the challenge… but instead he tried and pulled out quickly.

His sandbag had been passed around in regular intervals between the remaining three – Lloyd being the one who was currently holding two bags.

"W-We got this," Lloyd winched as his arms slightly lower from the weight.

"Pass it over, I can take it," Jay grunted, reaching over to take the bag but Lloyd pulled away.

"I can last for another minute with two. Don't worry," the blond muttered but Nya rolled her eyes.

"Lloyd, even I can tell that in thirty seconds' time, you're going to drop one of them. Pass it now."

"Fine."

And so, the bag was passed to Jay. For a moment, Nya thought they would have dropped the bag in the process of passing it over since the crowds went crazy when one of the senior teams dropped their bags, getting drenched by the trough.

… Then shortly, another exclamation from the crowd when Griffin passed his sandbag to Zane, dropping Cole's team down to just two people.

"Yes! Griffin's out!" Lloyd grinned.

"Yeah but Cole's strong and Zane's a freaking statue. It'll be a miracle for us to still beat them," Jay winched, arms struggling drastically. "Okay, okay, I can't hold this for much longer!"

"Jay, it had only been ten seconds-"

"I don't care, Lloyd! Someone just take it!"

So, Nya had no choice but to lean over and grab it off Jay. The weight and the pain immediately doubled, making the pain worsen in her lower back.

"W-Wait! N-Kai-!"

"I got this, Jay," Nya grunted as she kept her arms above her head. "I can do this for a minute, then Lloyd can take it again."

"Okay, sounds like a plan-" The blond agreed before gasps went out.

Immediately, all three of them looked to their left, to see Zane had actually passed one of his sandbags to Cole, who was currently holding three. While the peculiar boy rolled his shoulder and tried to get blood back into his arm, Cole grunted out loudly and trembled as he tried to keep a hold of all three bags.

"Cole struggling? That's a first," Jay mused, with a smirk entering his lips.

"C-Cole got more weight on him. Not only he got to hold up those bags but his own arms as well," Nya hissed.

"True… You hanging in there alright, Kai?"

"Perfectly fine-"

And screams suddenly went off. Again, Nya looked to her left and saw Cole and Zane standing there, drenched in water that their trough had dropped.

"Yes! We did it!" Jay exclaimed, jumping with joy… which made his sandbag roll out of his hands and fall, pulling on the trough which tipped and poured water all over them.

"Jay!"

"You idiot!"

"Oops… Sorry."

 **.::.**

Amber eyes watched as the water sat coolly in the glass right before her with condensation coating the outside. Nya raised a finger delicately, allowing the tip to run around the glass, as if slicing the top half of the glass. From that, she observed as the transparent "blood" dripped down to the grainy wooden table below.

"I'm so sorry, guys… We could have won if I didn't let my excitement get to the best of me…"

"Jay, that's not your fault at all."

"But it is…"

"No, if it's anyone's fault, it would be mine… I should have been in a better head space and stayed in the competition longer-"

"Brad, that wasn't your fault at all. If anything, we're all proud that you still gave it a shot despite what's going on at home…"

"But… I just wished I did better-"

"Enough," Nya simply said, effectively cutting off the three males at their table, who were all picking at their lunch trays. "What happened is the past. We can't dwell on it. What we should be concentrating on is new strategy plans or fit some physical training in the afternoons to practice for the remaining challenges, not just quiz questions and such."

"No can do, dojo is absolutely full," Lloyd sighed. "Even the courtyards are jammed packed and my father said no one is allowed to train in the forest."

"Did you forget that three teams just got cut off today? I'm sure there'll be more spaces available," Nya firmly stated. "And what we can do is have lunch extremely early and then train in the dojo when everyone else heads to lunch a bit later."

"Yeah… I guess we can do that," Jay said with a shrug. "Okay, everyone good to start this new training?"

"Yep, it's good with me," the blond confirmed… While Brad shook his head.

"Actually… I was going to ask you guys if it's alright for me to miss out the competition for the next three or four days. I decided I do want to head back home for my mother's funeral… Is that okay?"

"Of course, you must be crazy if you thought we would be mad at you for this," Jay reassuringly said as he gently rested a hand on Brad's shoulder. "Just take the time to heal and recover, okay? If you need to even drop out of the competition, Kai, Lloyd and I will be able to keep up with the others."

"Are you sure?" Brad nervously asked, timidly meeting their eyes.

"Of course," Lloyd said softly as he too, also rested a hand on Brad's shoulder.

"I… I won't drop out. I promise… But I do need these couple of days to grieve."

"Do what you need. Just know that we're here for you."

"Thanks guys… It means a lot."

 **.:Jay:.**

It was only a couple hours after lunch when it began sprinkling. Little droplets of water gently strummed against the glass of their dorm window. But as the minutes went by, the water droplets began to grow bigger and fall more frequently. The light 'pitter patter' of rain turned into wet thuds as the icy water raced to meet the ground. The sprinkling turned into a torrential downpour.

Jay sighed as he leaned against the windowsill, allowing his cobalt blue eyes to wonder out to the landscape beyond his rain-blurred window, but he could only make out the faint outlines of the horizon, a couple trees and, honestly, that was it. However, that wasn't what he was looking for. He was waiting for the lightning… although it was taking its sweet time in making its appearance anytime soon.

But just as his eyes had adjusted to the darkened countryside -the steel grey clouds beginning to melt into the newly monochromatic landscape- there came a brilliant flash that flickered and died. It wasn't entirely a streaking bolt to the earth, but instead, more like a powerful camera flash that blanketed everything at once. Then, seconds later, came the rumbling thunder – a sound that resonated warmly within Jay's chest.

Jay never knew why but he was always so captivated by lightning – by how powerful this strike of dancing light could be. He would partially know, he did get struck by one a few years ago when he stupidly tried to go paragliding in the middle of a storm.

Yeah, definitely not a fun experience.

"… Jay?"

"Yeah?" He asked in response to Nya's voice which came through the closed bathroom door, while also noticing the water from the shower had stopped running.

"I forgot to grab a clean shirt…" She answered somewhat hesitantly. "Can you get one for me? In the second top drawer."

"Yeah, no problem," Jay replied as he leaned off the windowsill and headed towards Nya's drawers.

To be honest, he was a little reluctant. From movies, shows and books he had read and watched, girls kept a whole bunch of stuff in their closets, wardrobes and drawers. Like secret love letters, toys for private time, lingerie, and other stuff Jay couldn't believe to imagine. He didn't want to invade Nya's privacy or come across something he was not ready to see at all. But… he guessed if Nya asked him to, it should be alright, right?

So, he opened up the drawer that Nya had instructed him to and was met with clothes neatly folded. Nothing scandalous. Nothing scarring. Good.

Majority of the tops and sweaters she had in this drawer were red, black, dark grey or grey… But he was surprised to see a blue shirt – standing out from the other colours. Jay picked it up, slightly tilting his head and also realising that the shirt was a feminine shirt from the curvature cut in the sides.

But why blue?

"Hey Nya?"

"Jay, I just asked for a shirt."

"I know… I just wanted to ask if blue is your favourite colour."

"… Yeah, it is," Nya answered hesitantly.

For some odd reason, hearing that Nya's favourite colour was blue placed a smile onto Jay's face, and made his heart light up from within his chest. Maybe it was because he and Nya finally had something in common – their favourite colour. In all honesty, he and the mysterious girl had nothing in common… well, maybe apart from their similar interests in robotics and engineering.

Nevertheless, he walked over to the door and held the shirt right next to the handle before turning his back to the door and closing his eyes.

"Okay, here's the shirt. My back is to the door and my eyes are closed."

He listened carefully; from the soft footfalls of Nya's feet against the bathroom to the hesitant opening on the door.

"… You grabbed the blue shirt?"

"You said blue is your favourite colour. You should wear it more often."

"Yeah… whatever." He heard her grumble as she took the shirt out of his hand and shut the bathroom door.

By now, Jay was pretty used to Nya's grouchy attitude, but he honestly preferred her teasing and more carefree personality – like yesterday morning when she laughed at him kissing his pillow and pulling off an erection in his sleep.

With a small sigh, he headed back to the drawer, realising he didn't even close it… But before he could, an old piece of paper caught his attention, sticking out of the side of a knitted red sweater.

Again, Jay's curiosity went through the roof. He could feel his hand twitch by his side to reach over to pick up the paper and read or see what was on it. Perhaps a letter? A note? A picture?

"… Damn you, curiosity," Jay hissed quietly as he quickly reached in and take out the red sweater.

He immediately took notice of the fragility of the knitwear – confusing Jay as to why Nya would even keep such a piece of clothing around. Nevertheless, Jay treated it as if it was glass. If Nya kept it, it must hold some sort of sentimental value to her… And maybe the reason why she had this piece of paper in it.

Jay gently slipped the paper from within the sweater, making sure the corner of the paper didn't get caught on any yarn. Once he was certain the sweater was in the exact same condition as of when he had grabbed it, he then turned his attention on the paper… which turned out to be a letter of some sorts.

 _I never had any reason to worry about the future. Everything was great. Everything was perfect. Perfect family, perfect life and perfect everything. It's amazing how one life-changing event can change everything. Now, I always worry about the future. I'm not sure if it was because of my young mind and lack of wisdom, but I never gave thought to all the time that was enclosed my life into only a small speck in a timeline. I had so much time. So much time that I let it slip through my fingers like sand. So much time that I watched it drain like water in a tub. So much time that I let it vanish like a magician in an act. So much time I watched it dissolve like a mirage across a desert. So much time I stood as it flew across the empty horizon. I realise that I had so much time, but I wasted it. I wasted time that could have been spent making long ever-lasting memories with the most influential people on my life. I worry for the future because now, because I realised that for some of us, today might be our last tomorrow. Hopefully, I won't make the same mistakes… For now, I promise to keep making longer lasting memories-_

Jay didn't get to finish the rest of the letter. He wished he did because he was so absorbed in Nya's writing… So absorbed that he didn't hear the bathroom door open or that she had stormed to him.

"What are you doing?" She venomously snapped, so venomous that Jay seriously thought he was going to die shortly because if looks could kill as well, he would be dead by the numerous of daggers Nya were throwing from her eyes.

Jay didn't even get the opportunity to answer. He only managed to get his mouth open when Nya carefully snatched the folded sweater from him before holding it possessively to her chest and… tears in her eyes? For a moment, Jay didn't care that he was about to be verbally murdered by Nya because the pain of being murdered that way couldn't compare to the spark of pain within his chest from seeing Nya with those tears.

The last time he saw Nya cry was when she had that nightmare… Previous times it was with other nightmares or when she briefly talked about her parents' death or when… or when she told him the truth about her past and her brother. For her to be crying over a sweater… It definitely had to be something sentimental… something to do with her brother or her parents and this note.

"I didn't ask you to go through my things! I only asked for a shirt!"

"N-Nya, I-I'm sorry-"

"Sorry doesn't cut it!" She spat, quickly shoving him to the side and placing the sweater with hurried care into the drawer before closing it shut.

"I know but I'm sorry-"

"Just why?!" She shouted, whipping around to face him with frustrated tears gathering in her eyes, stunning him into silence. "Why, Jay? Why?! Why did it have to be _this_ that you and your damn curiosity had to go looking into?!"

The emotions that Nya were showing did nothing but make Jay feel a tidal wave of sadness… To know that for him simply holding this sweater would cause her to unleash this. It was no doubt that this knitwear was important to Nya…

Not knowing what to say, Jay just simply held the note up. He knew no apology would calm Nya of her sudden wrath. He knew his stuttering to find words would only irritate her more.

Jay expected Nya to explode when he held the note up, seeing how he probably read an extremely personal note of hers, but instead, he watched as her rage and sadness faded away within a couple of seconds as confusion washed over her face.

"What's that?"

"It's your note… from within your sweater," Jay timidly explained as he handed over the paper.

"But… I never put in a note in there," Nya murmured, taking the paper from him and then her eyes glazing over the paper.

Time seemed to slow down then because every second to Jay felt like it was taking an eternity… But it did present Jay with the perfect opportunity to observe Nya as she read the note.

He watched as her perfect amber orbs flickered across the note, taking in the words that appeared to be unfamiliar to her. Yet, just like moments ago, those beautiful eyes of hers started to glaze over with a glassy layer of tears again… But these weren't tears of sadness. To Jay, it looked to be tears of sadness _and pain_. Tears slid down her cheeks as she blinked, but when she bit her lip tightly in attempt to hide any sound that wanted to escape from her mouth, Jay found himself starting to tear up.

Maybe minutes had passed when Jay started to notice the tremble in Nya's body as her eyes went further down the paper. She wasn't just trying to hold back any sounds anymore – it was like she was trying to hold herself from breaking apart completely. Her arms had withdrawn towards her body as her trembling hands tightly held onto the paper.

"… Nya?" Jay asked hesitantly, but worriedly.

His voice had seemed to surprise her since her eyes rapidly looked up from the paper and to meet his eyes. Never had he seen such sorrow and pain in Nya's eyes.

But suddenly, the tears burst forth like water from a dam. Tear after tear spilled down her face. The muscles in her chin trembled like a small child – this was enough for Jay to no longer see Nya as a strong yet haunted girl, but a broken girl who had her innocence and childhood taken away from her… a girl who endured through the worst.

It was pure instinct that made Jay took a couple strides forward and pull the crying girl into his chest with his arms around her comfortingly… and she didn't even resist. Instead, it was like brick by brick, her walls came crumbling down. No longer was there Nya, the girl who tried to appear strong, who masked her pain and sadness behind a mask of her brother or a mask of anger. In his arms was just a broken shell of a girl. She was openly sobbing into his chest unceasingly. Her hands were clutching at the front of his shirt, as if trying to ground herself, as if trying to prevent herself from falling apart even more.

Jay could only hold her silently. His arms held her close and didn't dared to let go – kind of as a reminder that he was there, to support her always. He softly swayed the two of them, hoping the gentle motion would soothe her tears… but they didn't. Instead, they kept coming, spilling from her eyes and soaking into his shirt.

Moments after that, Nya pulled away, as if having a tiny lapse. Her amber eyes looked up at him, so full of agony, while her lashes were heavy with tears… before she broke apart again and continued to cry into his chest, her howls of misery worsening. Her pain must have come in waves as minutes of sobbing were broken apart by short pauses of recovering breaths, before hurling back into the out-stretched arms of her grief.

It didn't take long for the tears to leave Jay's eyes as well.

 **.::.**

Jay sighed.

His sigh was softly deflating; it was as if tension had lifted yet left him with melancholy instead of relief.

He stood back from Nya's bed, after tucking the sleeping girl underneath the covers. It had seemed thirty minutes of continuous crying really took a toll on Nya's body since she had fallen asleep in his arms while they were both still standing up… more like while Jay stood and supported all of Nya's weight. Not that he minded. Jay would like to think Nya would return the favour if he was to be in grief like she was, but it was very likely she wouldn't – yet Jay still couldn't bring himself to care. She needed comfort and support, he was more than willing to give that to her.

But once again, curiosity consumed him. It made his eyes look over to the ground where Nya had dropped the piece of paper, which must be a letter from either her brother or parents that she had never seen. A part of Jay was dying to read it… but at the same time, it was a personal letter of Nya's.

 _Don't. If you read it and Nya finds out, she's going to be pissed._

Of course, did Jay ever listen to reasoning or logical sense when it came to programmatic situations like this? Never.

So, Jay walked over to the letter and picked it up, resuming where he had last read off.

 _Hopefully, I won't make the same mistakes… For now, I promise to keep making longer lasting memories for you, Nya._

 _I guess if you have found this letter, and reading it now, it means I'm dead... also meaning I haven't completed my promise. Never, ever, would I ever leave you alone like this, Nya – especially not while we're on the run but life is unpredictable… the future is unpredictable. All what we can do for the future is prepare for it, so I guess I'm writing this to prepare you or to help you, because I know you. I know losing me will be your breaking point. Losing our parents is hard enough. Living with an abusive uncle is hard enough. Going on the run is hard enough. But to lose the last person you have left? That's breaking point… And I know if I ever lost you, I would be destroyed beyond ways ever imagined. Why? Because you're my sweet little sister. The sister who hates failing. Who hates anything that isn't perfect. Who's so fiercely determined, intelligent and stubborn. Who's so compassionate, sensitive, caring and loving. I know we had our fights when we were younger, but I honestly wouldn't want another sister._

 _I love you, Nya. I need you to really know that. I love you so much that all I want is for your happiness. That's why I tried to take the hits from Aidan instead of you getting it because I hated seeing you in pain. That's why I wanted us to run because I hated seeing you so miserable in that hellhole. But this is also why I'm writing this._

 _I know my death, losing the last person you have, will destroy you. I know bearing this burden while living on the streets will cause you to lose hope and even go depressed… But I want to tell you to not be. It's going to be hard. It's going to take time -lots of time- but life have so much opportunity. Have you ever heard that saying, you know, the one that says, "when you've hit rock bottom, the only way to go is up"? Well, you're at rock bottom, and you might stay at rock bottom for a while, but I know for a fact that things will eventually look up for you._

 _All I want is for you to be happy. I don't want you to live the rest of your years down in the dumps because I know the best you is when you're happy – and that's when you shine the best. I know life will be difficult with Aidan on the lookout for us… well for you but people like him give up. He will eventually stop and that's when you can live your life. Live in a new town or village, live as a new person if you want. Just as long as you move on with your life and be happy, I'll be happy._

 _Remember what I told you about the red sweater you knitted for me? I said it was perfect because of the effort you put into it. Because of your determination to make it as perfect as possible for me. Because you never gave up on trying your best. People like you never give up, so I don't ever want you to give up now that I'm gone. I don't want you to lose sight of who you are. I want you to live life to the fullest for Mum, Dad and I. I want you to be happy for Mum, Dad and I. I want you to be you._

 _I love you, Nya. I just wish that you never have to read this letter._

…

Jay was lost for words. He numbly sat on his bed, letter hanging loosely from his hands.

This was something from the real Kai. The Kai that Nya had been impersonating. The only thing that Jay knew about the real Kai was… was nothing really. Jay only remembered seeing a glimpse at what the real Kai looked like, but to be honest, Jay couldn't really remember the difference between the real Kai and the Kai that Nya had been impersonating since when he saw the photo at the time, he thought the Kai that was in the photo was actually Nya.

… And dang, his stupid curiosity wanted to see that photo again.

Jay got up and headed to Nya's desk where her school blazer was hanging off the back of the chair. He immediately reached in and felt the texture of the tattered photos against his fingers, so he pulled it both out.

Observing it now, Jay could spot the differences between the real Kai and the fake Kai. Obviously, the real Kai was taller, with more muscles and a better upper body build… Probably from helping the family around the blacksmith shop that Nya told Jay that they had owned. His face didn't have the feminine facial features like Nya did… Heck, if the real Kai actually came to their school and also went over to Misako's academy for that joint project, Jay, Lloyd and Cole would have no chance with the girls – especially with those faint scars on Kai's face since chicks dig scars.

But… Jay looked at the massive grin on the guy's face and struggled to picture that smiling and bright happy face writing that heart-breaking letter. To imagine that Kai _and Nya_ both used to wear that big of a smile before their parents' death.

And Nya back then… She looked so happy. She was on Kai's back, her arms over his shoulders and interlocking in front of his chest while his arms had grabbed underneath her legs to keep her propped up. Her natural raven hair was long, ending at her shoulders. Her face was a lot fuller, there was not a slightest trace of sleep deprive from underneath her eyes, and, there was a smile on her lips – a genuine massive and happy smile.

Jay wanted nothing more than to get that smile back on Nya's face… and to help her achieve what Kai wanted for her – for her to be happy, to move on and to just be herself.

 ***crickets chirping* So… I guess hi everyone? I know I promised I wouldn't be gone for long but when my mental state seemed to be getting so much better, it'll get knocked back much worse. Like one step forward, ten steps back kind of thing. So I got better, then worse. Gone to see psychologist (who I must say is absolutely lovely and really understands me so well) and it's helping me. I know a lot of people think going to a psychologist is for the weak, or it won't help you, but it does. It won't straight away, but eventually it will.**

 ** _But to make up for my long absence, I've written this long chapter for you all!_**

 ** _BUT_** **just because I've updated now, it won't mean I'll be back to updating every week. Maybe every fortnight or once every three-four weeks. I'm off university for the whole year due to me wanting to concentrate on my mental health, along with focusing on work and I've changed my degrees so I can do a double bachelor – WHICH ONE IS CREATIVE WRITING SO I CANNOT WAIT!**

 **But reason for this is also because I need to work desperately for money as I need** ** _SIX WISDOM TEETH_** **removed. Yep. Six. No joke – although the x-ray looks wicked and awesome haha. I neeed $3500 for the surgery so I'm trying to work my butt off to get it all sorted.**

 **Anyway, thank you all for the reviews for chapter 17! I'm glad you all loved the extra characteristiation I'm adding to Brad and that you all loved that beginning scene – I'll make sure to add more later! ;)**

 **Anyway, I love you all and I cannot wait to see you all again in two weeks when I post! (And little spoiler for next chapter, we get some more Zane and Nya! Along with talks of the elements ;) )**

 **Until next time, xoxo, ZaneLoverFan88**


	19. Chapter 19 - Ascendancy

**Chapter 19  
Ascendancy**

 **.:Lloyd:.**

Something wasn't right.

Most times when Lloyd had this thought swirling around his head and the feeling of dread being pumped into his stomach, he wouldn't exactly know why he was feeling or thinking this. But one glimpse to his remaining two team members confirmed it to him.

They both looked awful – Kai even more than Jay.

Kai looked like he had fought his way into hell and back. His hair was an utter mess. The chestnut strands weren't in their iconic spikes, instead it resembled closely to a bird's nest – just a collection of stiff strands messily interwoven with each other in all directions. Then, there were the black bags that sat underneath the brunet's bloodshot amber eyes, that stared with haunt at his bowl of cereal.

That look in Kai's eyes was what concerned Lloyd the most. The blond sort of saw it in Brad's eyes when the younger boy first announced to Lloyd that his mother was dead. Kai's eyes; however, were a whole other story. While Brad's were sad, Kai's was full of forlornness and pain. Did he recently lose someone close too? His sister perhaps? Did Skylor break up with him? No… That couldn't be it. Kai wouldn't look this haunted if that was the case.

Lloyd knew he had to milk the answers out of Jay… but Jay looked exhausted – physically and mentally.

The usually loud boy was silent this morning while he sat bleary-eyed and unshaven at the table, munching his way slowly through a mouthful of cereal. His hair was only a bit of a mess while he had slight bags underneath his eyes – nothing like Kai though.

But suddenly, for no reason, Jay stopped chewing. Lloyd gave his friend a questioning look, but the boy's jaw just went slack. A little bit of milk dribbled out of his mouth. His eyes glazed over blankly, and his head nodded forward. Then before Lloyd knew it - _WHOMP!_ \- Jay's head landed right smack into the bowl in front of him.

The table shuddered violently, making Kai wearily look over. However, Jay was up as quickly as he had gone down… but with milk dripping down his face and down into the collar of his shirt.

"What just happened?"

"You faceplanted into your breakfast," Lloyd flatly replied but carefully observed his friend.

Then that was when he saw it. Jay's tired blue eyes flickered over to Kai, who then looked back down to his bowl and stayed silent.

 _…_ _Something's wrong with Kai. That's why Jay's like this._

"I did?"

"Yeah, can you not feel the milk on your face?"

"I do now…" The boy groaned, grabbing his napkin and wiped his face.

"… So, you two want to fill me in on what's going on?" Lloyd suspiciously asked. Again, Jay's eyes worriedly looked over Kai who only stared down at his bowl, his hand lazily pushing his spoon around. "Kai, what's going on?"

"Nothing," he flatly murmured, eyes never raising to meet his.

The blond could only sigh and look to Jay.

"If Kai isn't going to tell me, you are."

"I-I… It's nothing to-"

"I call bull on that!" Lloyd suddenly snapped, gaining both pairs of eyes for once. "Something happened last night, something that left Kai very shaken which made you stay up, Jay. You two better come clean with me because teammates don't keep secrets from each other."

"It's none of your concern," Kai suddenly coldly said, making Lloyd falter. "If I said its nothing, its nothing. So, keep your nose in your own business and not in other people's."

"I do unless I can see it's tearing the person apart, like it is to you," Lloyd firmly stated, narrowing his eyes.

"Lloyd," Jay called, "Just drop it… please."

"No, I won't until someone tell me," Lloyd hissed, glancing with narrowed eyes between his friends.

"It honestly doesn't concern you-"

"And it does to you?"

"I'm his roommate."

"You really think that makes a difference?"

"It makes a massive difference-!" But both boys were silenced when Kai slammed his fist on the table.

"My parents are dead, okay? My brother is dead! Now will you two shut up?!" Kai snapped venomously, his voice loud (not for the other tables to hear) and slightly higher in pitch.

Lloyd was utterly shocked into silence. His green eyes stared widely at his new friend… who only shook his head, looking like he was about to break apart.

"Kai…" Jay murmured quietly but the boy abruptly stood up in his seat and just as quick as it happened, Kai left the cafeteria.

Lloyd sat slumped in his seat, just staring at the seat where Kai had sat not too long ago. The blond's mind tried to process what he heard but… it was just too much.

"You… You knew about this?" Lloyd quietly asked, looking to Jay who only nodded.

"The deaths weren't recent though… His parents one to two years ago and his… his brother within the last year."

"Kai had another sibling?"

"Y-Yeah… With Brad losing his mother, I think Kai's just slipping back into grief again," Jay murmured quietly, resulting Lloyd to sigh and run a hand over his face.

"… You think it would be more beneficial to have Kai take a couple rounds off as well?" Lloyd questioned softly.

"So it's just us two?" Jay gasped. "Are you insane?"

"Do we really have a choice, Jay? Kai might cause more damage than good."

"I-I guess… I'll go and talk to him."

 **.:Jay:.**

 _An hour later…_

It was so subtle – the small pouting of the lips which were tugged at one end, the narrowing of the eyes and a tilt of the head. That stupid smirk was so subtle, yet Jay could easily see it on Cole's face.

It wasn't hard to figure out why Cole was smirking. Heck, if Cole's team looked anywhere as sorry as Jay's team did, Jay would be smirking too… But Jay would do so in confidence. For Cole? It was a sign of arrogant and premature triumph.

But… again, their team looked awful.

Despite Jay trying to talk Nya out of coming to the challenge, she did anyway… looking just as bad as she did at breakfast. Then with him looking exhausted and Brad missing, yeah, it really made their team look awful – which of course, made Cole smug and arrogant.

"Good morning teams, and welcome to the fourth challenge: stealth. Except of it being a team round, it's an individual round. That is right, everyone must nominate a single person from their team to represent and compete," Master Wu announced, immediately making Jay look over to Nya the same time Lloyd did.

They both knew, out of the four of them, Nya had the best stealth… But with her mental state at the moment, it was pretty obvious she wasn't going to be the one doing it.

"The goal is for the individual to be able to sneak through the entire academy and into the very top floor, the attic, to obtain one a tea cup from my traditional golden set while trying not to be caught by droids that Professor Borg has created. Once you've been caught, you're out so do not be the first team to be caught. The person who can retrieve the tea cup and bring it down here first will obtain a handicap or hint for the next challenge for their team. Now, you have three minutes to decide your representative and to discuss any strategy plans."

"Let's get this over with…" Nya muttered. "Pretty clear it's me?"

"No offense, Kai, but you're not in the right headspace," Lloyd said as he went to rest a hand on Nya's shoulder, but she just jerked away from him.

"I can do this. I'm the stealthiest here and we all know that I'm stealthier than you two by heaps."

"Kai… Please," Jay softly said. "Take a break. If we lose this one, then we lose-"

"I said I got this!" She snapped.

Both boys fell silent. The decision had already been made.

 **.:Nya:.**

Darkness coated the academy like the thick velvet curtains of the theatre; all the bright airiness of the day faded. Despite it being mid-day, all windows and external doors were shut – blocking out all light and sound. Not that it bothered Nya, she was pretty used to sneaking around in the dark like the time she and Kai made their escape from home.

So far, it had been a good twenty minutes since the challenge had started, and in all honesty, it was taking Nya forever to reach the top. Heck, she wasn't even sure if she was halfway through! Nya had been taking all caution with this round. As soon as she heard something or someone near her, she would press her body to the wall and preferably near some tall furniture so the droids wouldn't see her with their night vision. The whole team was resting on her shoulders – she could not mess up at all.

… And the reason she was trying so hard not to mess up was so she could distract her mind from what Kai's letter said.

But the girl stopped when she heard quiet steps entering the hallway. With even quieter steps, Nya backed herself against the wall, next to a trophy case. The figure and the footsteps continued down the path but slowing down as it approached her spot. Nya knew for a fact that it was a student, not a droid. She could just make out the slight outline of his tall body shape.

"Nya, is that you?"

Nya gasped upon hearing this. Her eyes widening as she tried identifying the figure in front of her – not that she really needed to, Zane's monotonous voice was as clear as day.

"Are you insane? Why are you using that name here?" She hissed.

"No one else is in the building. We are the only two left. The other remaining students have been caught," Zane simply informed.

"If we're the only two left, then why are you talking to me? In case if you'd forgotten, our teams are complete rivals."

"I have not forgotten," he replied, before heading down the corridor… giving Nya no choice but to follow. "I saw you looked to be in distress this morning – much like when I had found you on the rooftop."

"We're competing, I don't need any words of advice from you," she snapped.

"Believe what you want to believe, but I do not believe that rivalries or a competition like this should prevent a person from helping another. We are alone now, it presents a perfect opportunity to talk- shh!" Zane quickly hissed and Nya could hear him darting over to the wall and pressing his back to it, so she did the same.

And again, a droid walked down the corridor. But after a few seconds, after the sound had faded, Zane went back to walking.

"We are good now. Now follow. I still have much to tell you."

"Zane, I honestly don't need words of wisdom from you."

"Again, believe that you do not need this, but I am going to say it," the peculiar boy firmly repeated, making Nya groan. "Do you remember what I told you on the rooftop?"

"About telling Jay? I already did."

"I already figured you told Jay. He acts differently around you now. But no, I am not referring to that. I was referring to the speech I made about rain and water."

"I forgot."

"Let me repeat then. Many people associate rain with sadness and gloominess, but it is more than that. It is life and without it, nothing would grow. Now, I tend to associate people with an element. Cole being earth as he possesses many traits that earth would. Not only is he physically strong like the earth beneath our feet, but he values structure and stability. He is very resilient and have strong capacity to weather changes without needing to personally adapt very much, but of course this also makes him a bit stubborn. In emotional matters outside of his control, he does often do not bother responding at all, causing him to seem apathetic-"

"Can you get to the point?"

"No. It is imperative that you hear what I have to say, and no less of it," Zane firmly stated as he stopped in the hallway and his shoes making a slightly shuffle noise against the wooden flooring – signalling that he had turned to face her. "For Lloyd, I would associate him with light and energy. He often shows traits of being extroverted and very willing to talk about his beliefs and philosophies, without prompting. He does not seem to like it when people are brooding, nor does he likes dealing with negative emotions, causing him to attempt to cheer others up very often. He has what most consider to be a natural charisma, and value forthrightness.

"Myself… it will have to be ice. This may be perceived to be biased to you, but I assure you I am unbiased in many instances. But people associated with ice tends to be very calm… and apparently monotonous like I am. They view things in very 'efficiency based' terms and are more likely to communicate heavily in terms of observable facts only. They are very analytical, but not often very progressive or creative directly, valuing 'order' to the point of extreme. In other words, they are efficient, focused and assistive, facilitating and quiet."

Nya carefully listened to Zane's words as they continued to make their way to the attic. Although what Zane was saying made perfect sense, it was confusing her. Like why was he telling her this? What was the point of pointing out similarities with elements and personality?

"Jay I would associate with lightning. He is very interested in the flow of ideas and concepts of an 'intellectual' type and seem almost compelled to educate anyone who engages him in conversation. But being an intellectual type, if he does not have the facts or the answers he needs, his curiosity consumes him dangerously. But much like a spark of electricity, Jay gets easily excited or have radical emotions once triggered.

"Now you," Zane started, immediately making her keen beyond reasons. "I would have to give you two."

"Huh? Why?"

"Because there is the real you, and the impersonation of your brother. Now answer me, is Kai normally how you portray him?"

"… He's usually like that to people he first meets," Nya quietly said. "But usually, he's caring and protective… maybe a tad too protective and a bit of a hot head."

"For that, I associate that impersonation and him with fire," Zane softly said, his hand reaching out to rest on her shoulder in the dark. "People who associate with fire are notably passionate about nearly everything, though whether that passion is a quick sudden blaze, or a steady burn, it seems to differ within a range. They are usually very proactive people, who are not discouraged easily and will keep trying the same method if it seems to be working at all, until they succeed. They also often innovate methods to take on a problem head on, but if this is repressed or discouraged, they often become reluctant to put their all into things even though they still want to and react strongly to suggestions of doing so. They are usually very forthright as they prefer not to put too much calculation into such things. Was Kai like that?"

"Very… He always does things before thinking them through."

"Just as I thought. But to conclude on your brother, he is focused and driven, relentless even when cautious. At his worst, he can pushy, overly protective and easily angered, but he does it all for the people he loves – like you."

Nya immediately bit on her lip, feeling the tears starting to burn at her eyes.

 _I love you, Nya. I need you to really know that. I love you so much that all I want is for your happiness. That's why I tried to take the hits from Aidan instead of you getting it because I hated seeing you in pain. That's why I wanted us to run because I hated seeing you so miserable in that hellhole. But this is also why I'm writing this._

"Please do not be upset, Nya."

"I-I'm sorry," she whispered. But she couldn't help it.

The grief and remorse she had tried so hard to block out for this entire challenge was coming back… and it came back in waves. Suddenly, it was so overwhelming that Nya felt herself stumble back but Zane's hands firmly kept her on her feet – but the grief didn't stop. It crashed down on her violently and harshly; engulfing her entire being and devastating her already tattered heard. The grief that surged through her was heard in every expelled breath, always reaching high peaks, never sufficiently soothed by her long intakes of the heavy hair.

"Nya. Nya, listen to me. You need to take in deep breaths."

She was trying. God, she was trying so hard but no matter what, every breath she took was never enough to satisfy her aching lungs.

"Listen to my voice, okay? Just concentrate on what I have to say and let it soothe you."

Nya only managed to respond with a small nod, which Zane just happened to see despite the darkness.

"You want to know what I associate you with? Water. The same water as in the showers. The same water that pours from the clouds. The same water your own tears are made up of. Water represents sadness, sorrows and misery – the very things that you are filled of… but it is also life. Everything that exists in the world is because of water. And I know, for a fact, that you also represent life, Nya.

"Look what life has done to you. It has thrown so many obstacles in your way. Some have knocked you down, but you always get back up. You keep fighting on to live. After your brother's death, you did not commit suicide. You stayed alive, for him – and I know that he would want the same. You adapt to these changes in your life. It may take forever, and it may not be easy, but you still adapt, and you still live on – exactly like water.

"As much as you try to hold your emotions, I know once they are out, they are out, and they come strongly. You get expressive about emotional matters. But you react more strongly to emotional disturbances or unpleasant situations than most other elemental personalities. I have read that with people who possess the water element, if this emotional disturbance or unpleasant situation is repressed, they often struggle to 'prove' that nothing bothers them, or worse, become obsessed with control to prevent it – something I am starting to see more often since this is not a thing you can keep suppressed for long.

"But I understand that you are understanding, nurturing and empathetic. You might not know it, but I overheard the talk you gave to Brad about his own mother – yes, I was in the courtyard for that. At the same time, though, at your worst, you are moody, prone to grudges and negativity, spiteful and predatory… which I guess does shine through your impersonation of your brother."

Throughout the whole time that Zane was talking, Nya did find that his monotonous voice and his… his slightly inspirational speech did cause her to calm down considerably. She no longer found it hard to breathe. She no longer felt that she was being crushed underneath the overbearing weight of her insecurities, fears and anxiety-

However, the two of them froze into place when they heard the familiar, yet distant whirring of a droid. Nya immediately leapt to hide behind another trophy shelf while she could faintly see Zane hiding behind a baby palm pot plant.

Nya honestly didn't know what she was going to do when a droid would see her. Originally, she had thought that once the droid sees you, game over. That wasn't the case at all. Wu did tell them that they have a chance to outrun the droid and lose it… which would still be an impossible task to achieve since Borg did say he had designed these droids to be able to fight back with basic counterattacks until they can overpower students and carry them out of the academy and to where everyone else was – just to ensure there was no cheating. Heck, these droids probably have night vision so they could see things clearly and well! The actual real humans? Absolutely not.

"You there! Behind the plant!" Came the most monotonous and robotic voice sound – which Nya immediately knew it was from the droid.

Within a second, she heard Zane sprinting down the hallway -back to where they had come from- making the droid run after him.

Nya knew, for a fact, that if only one student could be able to escape a droid, it would be Zane. This was not good news to her since it meant that Zane would still stay in the round… and she couldn't allow her team to lose to them again.

Quickly, Nya darted out from behind the shelf and quickly went down the corridor. She had to win this for Jay, Lloyd and Brad.

However, once Nya entered the next floor, she froze when she could see the faint outline of a droid right in front of her.

 _Are you serious?!_

"Hold it!"

Nya didn't listen. Heck, why would she?

The first thing she did was turn back around and run down the stairs. She could hear the droid running after her – its heavy and metallic steps echoing in the narrow stairway. However, Nya remembered that with this stairway, there was a metal bar running along the roof of the stairway. Why? It was for teachers and staff to hang up decorations for events. At the moment, it provided Nya a perfect plan.

Her hands immediately reached up and clasped onto the metal bar and she swung her body forward so her legs could go up in the air and her ankles could hook onto another bar. She must have done so just in time before the droid could grab her because she suddenly heard a series of bangs and loud clangs falling down the stairs.

Nya wasted no time. She quickly let go to rushed up the stairs before the droid could get time to recover.

Deep down, Nya knew she couldn't outrun the droid forever. Eventually, it would try to grab her and fighting a droid in the dark was a fight she was going to lose.

 _How to lose it? How how how how how-?_

Nya mentally scowled when she heard the heavy footsteps again, following her… and another set of footsteps in front of her. A profanity instantly went off in her head as she realised that there was no way she was going to escape this. Zane was going to win. Cole's team was going to win again. She was going to let down her team-

Nya paused in her step, despite hearing the droid behind her only being two hallways away and the one in front of her a few away. Apart from the heavy footsteps and the whirring of machinery, Nya's ears could hear the whistling sound of wind seeping in through the gap between the window frame.

The girl rushed over to the window and ripped open the curtains – blinding her retinas with the sudden light but with the echoing and pounding footsteps, Nya forced her eyes to stay open as she pushed open the window and immediately climbed out of it.

She could hear a collective gasp from the crowd below, but Nya quickly shut the window and climbed up the exterior of the monastery-styled academy. Judging from how high she was up and how much of the building she had left to climb, Nya could tell she had another three floors to go – one more until she reached where the roof started.

Climbing trees were one thing, climbing a building was a whole other thing. Unlike a tree, there were no grooves for her fingers and feet to grasp onto, unless she overstretched to grab onto the windowsill from above.

"Kai! Be careful!" She could hear Lloyd yell from below, but Nya paid him no attention as she focused on climbing as much as she could before the droid would follow her out-

Too late. It already did… and climbing a lot faster than she did.

Nya just managed to throw herself onto the tiled roof when the droid jumped on with relative ease and faced her, arms raised in a basic defence stance. Nya did the same. She could potentially beat the droid – after all, she wasn't in darkness anymore.

She kept her amber eyes firmly on the droid, watching every limb and waiting for its first attack… which it did after a few seconds. Nya dodged every punch and kick it threw, slowly walking backwards and up the roof so if she were to fall, it wouldn't be off the roof and to her death.

But suddenly, she noticed a slight hesitation in the robot whenever it would kick with the left leg – which meant an opening for her to get her attacks in. So, she waited, dodging every other limb it was throwing.

 _Right leg. Left arm. Right arm. Left arm. Right arm. Right leg._

Then, Nya saw the hesitation again, and immediately, she knew the next attack would be from the left leg. She readied her hands and watched as the left leg raised to deliver a basic kick. The girl grasped onto the limb, slightly grunting as the power behind the legs made her arms struggle to keep a hold on the limb but she growled lowly as she gave a sudden and violent shove. The droid stumbled back, losing its balance.

Nya wasted no time in quickly stepping forward and delivering a kick of her own right at the chest of the droid. This time, it fell and stumbled down the curved declination of the roof. That didn't stop Nya. Instead, she followed the metallic body down the roof until it came to a stop – right next to the edge of the roof.

There, and then, Nya delivered the final kick – kicking the metallic body off the roof. She leaned over, watching as the body flailed in the air before smashing into pieces upon impact on the ground, erupting loud cheers from the students.

"Sorry, professor Borg!" She shouted before turning back to the inclination of the roof and starting to ascend.

 **.::.**

It took Nya a good five minutes to climbs up to the very top of the academy and climb into the window of the attic – but she didn't enter straight away. She first opened the window and observed the dark and dusty attic to ensure she wouldn't get any surprise attacks from any more droids. In her rare luck, there was none.

That didn't stop Nya from proceeding with caution. Each step that made contact on the wooden floor creaked from under her weight, which the sound then travelled and echoed within the attic, making the hairs on the back of her neck rise.

 _Just find the tea cup. Find it before a droid comes and before Zane comes up here too. Just look for something gold and shiny… Master Wu did say it's a golden teacup- AH HA!_

A triumphant smile entered the brunette's lips as her eyes spotted the little object sitting on top of a round end table. She wasted no time in retrieving it. She placed it securely into her pocket and just as she was about to leave the attic, something caught her attention.

A wooden paraglider was propped up against the wall of the attic, with canvas sheets as the wings and the structure pulling the canvas being bamboo… But it was the name on one of the bamboo support beams that caught her attention. Why? Because it was Jay's name-

 _BANG!_

Nya jumped, looking over her shoulder and see Zane entering the room in a hurried rush, harsh pants exiting his mouth as he tried to shut the door… but was unsuccessful as two droids pushed against the door, making the tall boy stumble back.

On impulse, Nya grasped onto the paraglider and lifted it up before hurriedly rushing out of the attic. There was no way she was going to help Zane. Call her selfish but she knew if she helped Zane, she could cost her team the round and the handicap for the next round which they probably needed considering Brad was going to be gone for a couple days.

She threw the contraption with care out of the window – after all, if she damaged it, it might just cost her life.

Nya hurriedly looked over her shoulder and panicked slightly to see one of the two droids rushing over to her. The girl leapt out of the window and onto the roof but when she looked up, the droid had just got to the window.

In a rush, Nya got up, picking up the glider and rushing to the edge of the roof. She held the glider in front of her, feeling the winds starting to pick. She could hear many more startled exclamations from the crowd below but that didn't stop her, if anything, it made her run faster… until she got to the edge of the roof and leapt off.

Suddenly, the rush of adrenaline Nya felt before vanished as she felt the contraption drop, but this was short lived as the canvas wings suddenly caught onto the wind and the glider soar through the air. Nya's ears could hear the rushing sound of the wind along with the students' cheers.

Eventually, after many few long seconds, Nya reached the ground… before shortly being tackled onto the ground by Jay and Lloyd.

"You did it!"

"I can't believe the glider flies!"

"Get off me!" Nya grunted since when the boys tackled her down, she had landed rather uncomfortably onto the glider… but she couldn't help but laugh.

Why? Because for once, Nya felt like she didn't fail _._

And it was enough to put a grand smile onto her lips.

 **Okay… So rushed ending but that was because I wanted the chapter to end there but not be this gigantic! Well… What's considered gigantic to this story because my favourite FanFiction at the moment, the writer posts freaking 19 000 worded chapters, once 37 000!**

 **But massive thanks to: Sunny Lighter, indira21kh, Inspirations of Life, naoninja, RebelutionaryWrites, Natalie Singe, unknown, Guest, AuroraRain18 and all my silent readers!**

 **Can't reply to any reviews at the moment but I'll see you all in the next chapter and another round of the competition! Xoxo – ZaneLoverFan88**


	20. Chapter 20 - Intrepid

**Chapter 20  
Intrepid**

 **.:Jay:.**

 _"For the next round, you all will be facing your fears. There will be four stages of this round and I will admit the last one, you three will struggle due to the absence of Mr. Tudabone but considering you won this round, I suppose it doesn't hurt to give you a thirty second head start just for that stage."_

 _"Thank you, Uncle Wu. We appreciate it."_

 _"The first three stages, again, you have to nominate a team member to compete. The last one, one of you will compete to face their fear while the other members work together to get them out. Now, I cannot tell you what exact fear people will be facing in each round other than these simple riddles. For the first one, you're be facing an insect that many are commonly afraid of. Next, a man if lying dead in the middle of the field with an unopened package next to him. How did he die? For the third, for the most fearful one as nothing is more fearful than little critters with an electronic counterpart. The last one is for the one with the greatest bravery as they'll be in the dark until their team can get them out. Any sudden move or sound, it'll strike. That is all I can say."_

 **.::.**

It was the next day. A new day. A new challenge – but this time, Jay knew what the challenge was going to be. After hearing Wu's riddle/hint for the challenge, the trio quickly worked out what each of the stages were: the first one was being in a small enclosed place with _a lot_ of spiders, the second one having a student skydive from a plane (which Jay was so excited for), the third was probably having to complete a course with a bunch of mice, and the last one, someone having to be in the dark with a bunch of snakes and they'll stay in there until their team can quickly get them out.

For Jay, he had immediately volunteered to do the second stage because Jay wasn't scared of heights at all. Heck, he _loved_ it. He loved the thrill of the air rushing past him and watching as the ground comes closer and closer to him. The stage he really didn't want to do was the last one because he _hated_ snakes. Heck, he was _petrified_ of them because you could never hear them coming and they can kill you two ways! They could squeeze you to death or eat you! Heck make it three since some snakes were venomous!

For Lloyd, he was... well not happy but willing to do two of the stages. The remaining three stages all got to do things crawling all over him, but he was willing to do the one with the spiders and the mice… Which lead the last stage, the most terrifying one with snakes, to Nya.

Jay honestly thought she would have freaked out because he was certain with their little snake chat before, she was just trying to be brave and just be like her brother, but no! She was honestly fine with snakes. She was fine with dark places. She was… somewhat okay with tight enclosed places. Then, Nya brought up a good point that if the rest of the team must get this entrapped member out, it would be better if it was Jay and Lloyd since they were the best of the group and have worked together for a couple years already.

"You guys ready for this?" Jay asked his two members as they waited with the other remaining nine teams.

"Ugh, no," Lloyd sighed. "While you love heights and Kai is alright with snakes, I'm not fine with spiders."

"You want me to take two stages then?" Nya asked.

"No no, you got snakes. Plus, I got my reputation as the headmaster's nephew and being my father's son. If people hear I took the easy round, they won't let me live it down," Lloyd grumbled.

"Stop complaining about it then," Nya simply said, crossing her arms over her chest. "The choice is already made, just go with it."

"Fine fine fine-"

"Good morning, students!" Wu's voice called out, ending all discussions and making silence fall over the courtyard. "Welcome to another beautiful morning and to our fifth challenge: fear. That's right teams, it's time for the fear round."

Jay listened around, hearing many of the teams murmuring worriedly while the audience were getting riled up – like who didn't like to listen to teenage boys screaming in fear? Having the handicap for this challenge was more than an advantage. Why? Because it allowed them to get mentally prepared. You would have time to prepare yourself to face your fears whereas the other students, who only just got told, would have a short amount of time before being thrown straight into their fears…

"There will be four stages, each stage, one member must be nominated to represent their team – but, each member must do a stage. No one can do two or more… unless your team is missing someone than yes, you need someone to do two stages. Now, you have two minutes to decide your first representative, then we'll announce the first stage."

"Does it feel weird I feel sorry for these other groups?" Jay curiously asked as he heard multiple of boys worrying about facing sharks, spiders and electric cobras - yeah… that was a fear challenge on Jay's first year.

"Yes, why are you feeling sorry?" Lloyd asked. "Kai won the handicap fair and square. Plus, we're already at a disadvantage with one less member."

"True. Anyway, good luck," Jay sighed as he clapped the blond on the back.

"Yeah, I need it," Lloyd shivered as he left the two and walked towards where Sensei Garmadon and Professor Borg were standing in front of four steel boxes, each as big as a house. Yep, it was big.

"Knowing Cole and Zane, they'll probably organise it that the most scared one goes first and the least last," Nya whispered to him, her eyes watching as Gene, Cole's newbie, walked over to the two teachers.

"Yeah. I mean if we really had to rank the easiest to the hardest stage, it would be the third one, then the first, then last then second. Wu really mixed it up."

"It's supposed to be a challenge. It's supposed to be hard. I would call our headmaster dumb if he did organise the challenges to go chronologically easiest to hardest."

"True-"

"Okay!" Sensei Garmadon shouted, grabbing everyone's attention. "Now that the representatives have be selected, let's dive into what the first challenge will be. Borg, if you can do the favour."

On cue, their professor pulled out a little remote from his pocket and clicked a button. Immediately, the box came to life as the front wall rolled upwards to reveal ten horizontal coffins with screens above the box, already on and showing a green-hue screen… probably a night-vision view of inside the coffins.

"Yes, as you can see already, our representatives will be inside a coffin, which have locks on the inside. The way to get out is to find the keys inside the coffin and then unlock the locks. This stage already will make you face your fear of the dark and in tight places – but is that all? No. The keys will be dropped through slots at the stop of the coffin, along with tarantulas."

While the crowd cheered, Jay could hear many of the representatives gasping, meanwhile Lloyd shivered.

"The quicker you unlock your three locks, the quicker you can get out of the coffin. Now let's get everyone situated."

 **.:Lloyd:.**

Lloyd didn't need his vision to know that there were spiders crawling all over him because he could feel every single one scuttling in seemingly random directions. He could feel all their little feet tickling across his skin (exposed and through his clothes!).

The blond did everything to not panic, knowing that panicking and screaming would result spiders crawling into his mouth or agitate them more. Yep, Lloyd definitely did not want that- _AHHHH!_

All thoughts about not panicking went out of the window when Lloyd felt a spider on his face and a hairy leg reaching into his nose. Adrenaline flooded into his system, pumping and beating around as if it was trying to escape. The blond wanted nothing more than to get his body out of the spider-infested coffin and then run as fast as he could for safety… But he couldn't, he needed the keys to get out.

Blindly, Lloyd was using his hands to dig through the spiders on either side of him and search for three keys – which he was fortunate when his fingers finally brushed over the metallic key. However, the spider on his face started to crawl over his nose, making the adrenaline to escape surge so fast that Lloyd could feel the saliva thickening in his throat, in preparation for the vomit.

Lloyd flinched when he heard the shrillest scream from the coffin next to him, and a lot of thuds from within.

 _Don't panic like him. Don't panic like him. Stay calm, it's just spiders. Just spiders! Just spi- AHHHH!_

An involuntary yelp came from his lips when he felt a spider crawling into the leg hole of his pants. The blond frantically wiggled his leg to get the spider out, resulting the other dozens of spiders to move faster over him, and resulting him to struggle to put the key in the keyhole-

 _WAIT IT'S IN NOW!_

Lloyd felt a surge of relief in him when the lock unlocked, but he still had two more to go. Not wasting any time, he frantically searched for another two (while also hitting the spider off his face). Fortunately, he found them quickly and unlocked his coffin.

He rushed out to get out of the box – he could hear kids laughing and cheering in the audience, but Lloyd didn't care. He could still feel spiders all over him! Ahh! Looking down he could _see_ the spiders on him!

"Congrats, Lloyd," Lloyd heard his father say as he came over, but the blond could only spin in circles, trying to frantically swipe all the spiders off him. "You're the first one out-"

"I don't care! Get it off! Dad! Help me!" Lloyd shouted before another involuntary yelp came from his lips.

"Hmmm, this is much more entertaining."

"You're the worst father ever!"

"I love you too, son."

 **.:Jay:.**

 _"Okay, now that we have our representatives for our second stage, I'll announce what everyone will be doing. This stage, you'll be facing your fear of heights. The representatives will have to jump out of the plane and each parachute bag will have an altimeter which we can see to see far each of you can fall while enduring through your fear before pulling the cord. But due to safety precautions, the bag will have an automatic release if the chute hasn't at seven-hundred feet. If that is the case, you'll get a zero. The student who have the shortest altimeter at the time that their parachutes deploy, unless the chute deployed itself automatically, then he will be at the top of the leader board. Now let's get started."_

In all honesty, Jay was beyond excited. He knew the other nine students weren't. They were all nervously sitting in their seats, most very pale.

"Okay, get ready! I'm going to open the door in five… four… three… two… one!"

The side door opened, and the winds immediately rushed into the plane, making Jay feel more energised than ever. He walked to the opening and looked down to the view below and it was simply breathtaking. He could just see the beautiful tapestry of the green and luscious country fields of Ninjago through the thin clouds. He could see some roads swirling, rising and falling with the gradients of the terrain… all before the cold air made his goggles mist up.

"Okay!" Borg shouted from the front of the plane. "There's a timer on top of the door that will count down from ten but if you're not off this plane before that timer hits zero, your team will be disqualified-!"

"WHAT?!"

"Professor Borg! That's isn't fair!"

"I didn't come up with that rule. But the timer starts now!"

Jay wasted no time in leaping out of the plane. The cold air rushed past as he accelerated faster and faster, the grin on his face getting bigger and bigger. He could feel the delightful thud of his heart beating against his ribcage with the thrill of free falling. In all honesty, Jay had no idea how people could find this terrifying. It was liberating. It was freeing. Heck, he no longer felt like he was falling but floating instead.

However, the trees on the ground were getting larger and closer, and Jay knew his time was coming to an end. Moving his eyes from the beautiful scenery, Jay checked his altimeter, and saw the digits rapidly decreasing towards seven-hundred feet. He looked up and saw only five others have jumped off the plan and only three of them had already had their chutes opened. It didn't surprise Jay to see Griffin was still falling while a junior student was screaming and still trying to pull his cord.

Jay looked back to his altimeter and knew it didn't matter whose chute was out first because they all jumped off the plane at different times. Jay attentively stared at the rapidly decreasing digits. From the position he was falling at, a stable belly-to-earth position, he was falling at one hundred and twenty miles per hour, making that one hundred and seventy-six feet per second. Although he was already holding the cord to activate his parachute, it would probably take three whole seconds for the chute to deploy… meaning he would need to time this precisely if he wanted to get as close as possible to seven hundred feet.

Immediately, the numbers started spinning inside of Jay's head.

 _Okay, seven hundred feet. I'm falling one hundred and seventy-six feet per second. Three whole seconds from pull to the chute deploying. Three multiply by one hundred and seventy-six… Uhhh… five hundred and twenty-eight feet. Add seven hundred is a thousand, two hundred and twenty-eight feet!_

Jay quickly looked to his altimeter, see the digits in the four thousand range – meaning he had approximately twelve seconds!

 _Looks like it's the end of the ride._

Jay sighed but mentally counted twelve seconds in his head while staring at the altimeter. Once he saw the digits hit a thousand, two hundred and twenty-eight, he yanked on the cord hard.

It took three seconds, like the brunet had estimated, for the parachute to open. Jay stared above, watching the canopy unfolding and opening, the creases in the material smoothening out as more of the clear blue sky was obscured from his vision. Then, with a sudden jolt to his body, the canopy extended fully, slowing his descend. However, his leisure decline only lasted a few seconds as the ground wasn't too far below him – the ground where he could hear an onslaught of cheers from the body of students below.

Jay couldn't resist it. He gave out his biggest, wolfish grin and did the loudest 'woohoo' he could possibly give.

How could he not? He had just jumped out of a plane and it was exhilarating! And, there was no doubt, that he had won this stage for his team like Lloyd had for the last one.

There was no way they were losing this round today as well.

 **.::.**

There was no way Lloyd was winning this challenge. In fact, Jay was even ashamed that Lloyd was his teammate. Heck, he was ashamed that Lloyd was even his friend! Double heck! He felt bad for Master Wu and Sensei Garmadon who were face palming to the side!

This stage was set up the same way as the first one – coffin with mice. The difference this time was that there were four metal numbers in the coffin, about the size of a matchbox and whoever was in the coffin needed to figure out what numbers he had and try multiple of sequences with those numbers to unlock the digital lock and only then will the coffin open.

So pretty much the same thing as the first challenge with spiders, just a tricker way to get out and with mice. You would think this would be much easier and definitely not as scary as the first challenge, right?

Well, not for Lloyd.

Jay winched as Lloyd let out a petrified shriek, erupting laughter from all the boys in the grandstands, along with Cole's entire team – yes, Zane got out of the coffin within a minute.

"GET ME OUT OF HERE! THEY'RE BITING ME!"

This got howls of laughter from all the boys. Jay took one look to Nya and saw that she looked like she wanted to be anywhere but here.

"Lloyd, these aren't as bad as spiders." Jay heard Sensei Garmadon sighing as he stood right next to Lloyd's coffin.

"NO, THEY'RE AREN'T! THEY'RE BITING ME! AHHHHH! ONE IS IN MY PANTS!"

Jay saw Cole drop to the ground, holding his stomach as he was laughing hysterically. The sight of it made Jay's jaw tighten.

"Hey," Nya said from his side. "They won't beat us."

"After this stage, they will," Jay sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"First two stages we got first. They only got first for this round. Next one, although we have one less person, we got a thirty second head start, remember? Plus, snakes. We had a team earlier pull out because of the spiders. We had three teams pull out with the skydiving. That means there's six teams left for this final round. It's likely two teams will pull out because of the snakes."

"Yeah but what about Cole's team?" Jay muttered worriedly as he casted another looking at his rival.

So far, on the overall leader board, Cole's team was first while Jay's team was third. Jay couldn't care less if they were third – he just didn't want to be below Dirtclog. He didn't want to give that idiot to believe he's the better student, that their fight was all because of Jay's fault when in actual fact, it was both of them!

"Cole is the representative for the next stage, and he'll be in a box. If it's Gene, Griffin and Zane working together to get Cole out, they won't work that well together – especially if it's manpower."

"How do you know if it's manpower and not intelligence?"

"Because Master Wu told us we would be greatly disadvantaged just because we're down one man – so manpower. Cole bears all the strength and power in that team, without that, you got Zane who's all brains and accuracy, Griffin with speed, and Gene with… well, he's not that strong at anything. Plus, is Cole scared of snakes?"

"Well… I think he's scared of dragons."

"So, reptiles. Plus, if we happen to be in a coffin with these snakes, Master Wu is most likely to say that as soon as he sees panic, he'll get the student out due to safety and so on. So, if Cole freaks out, we're fine."

"And what about you?"

"Like I said, I'm not scared of snakes."

"Ugh… I really hope you're right."

 **Ahhhh sorry if it seemed short and rush. I was going to add the final stage to this chapter, but this chapter would've been loooonng. And sorry for the long wait! Ever since I got back to work after wisdom tooth removal, because I transferred to another store, my hours suddenly bumped up to 36 hours of work a week. My manager and boss mentioned something about a promotion so I've been making sure I put everything into work so I can get this dang promotion quicker hahaha.**

 **Massive thanks to: IDidn'tSignUp4This, unknown, naoninja, NoYouCan'tHaveACookie, Inspirations of Life, Endeavor16, JSNI and all my silent reviewers for reading!**

 **I'll try to update next weekend – although that may be hard since it's my mum's birthday weekend and Sunday I'm baking a massive cake to bring to work (maybe I can bribe the manager and boss with it… HAHAHAHA). But I'll see you all next time to see whether or not Nya accomplishes and wins the last round, or not. Xoxo – ZaneLoverFan88**


	21. Chapter 21 - Bodacious

**Chapter 21  
Bodacious **

**.:Jay:.**

 _"Now, this final stage will be different. Although we have a representative from each team, the whole team will be competing in this stage. Your chosen representative will be facing their fears of dark and enclosed spaces, so they'll be in coffins."_

 _The last remaining steel box dropped its front wall, revealing another line of coffins._

 _"Now, the last two coffin challenges had spiders and mice. This one? Snakes."_

 _Loud round of gasps._

 _"And to top it all off, the representatives will be buried alive. This is where the rest of your team comes in; your role is to rescue your team member. Now, due to the danger this stage can pose, the coffins will remained attached by chains to the cranes that lower them in, so if we see the representatives panic through the dash cams and it's riling the snakes up, the cranes will lift the coffin out of the dirt and get you out. But this would mean your team is disqualified for this stage which can affect your final score for this challenge. In addition to this, representatives, if you don't want to continue on and do this stage, you don't have to go through with it. We will value your decision. I will give you a whole minute to decide if you'll do it or not. Your time starts now."_

 **.::.**

The mere thought of being trapped in a confining coffin with a dozen snakes sent Jay's body into a state of fear. Adrenaline was flooding through his systems, pumping and beating drastically as if it was trying to escape. Jay could feel and _hear_ the rapid pounding of his heart, which would no doubt explode if his body kept reacting this way.

But he couldn't help it. He just wanted to run away for the safety of the academy. Heck, he wasn't even with the snakes but just thinking about it made his body swirl with nausea. His saliva was thickening dangerously within his throat while beads of sweat formed along his hairline.

 _How is Nya not panicking?_

It was truly a mystery to Jay. Only three of the six remaining teams for this stage were competing; them, a junior team (surprisingly) and Dirtclog's team (unsurprisingly). Jay absolutely felt no remorse or sympathy for Cole. Heck, Jay secretly hoped that Cole would actually get bitten by one of those snacks. But for Nya? Jay felt dread and fear for her.

Sure, seeing her absolutely calm through the overheard monitors showed that she was fine and that the snakes weren't causing any harm, but Jay knew Nya better now. She liked hiding away her true emotions. Even when she was scared, she would mask it.

Jay felt his breath hitch in his throat when the three canes started to lift the three coffins off the ground. On one of the massive monitors, Nya's face slightly flinched but other than that, she remained calm. Looking to the other two monitors, Jay saw that the junior team's representative was starting to freak out by the rapid flares of his nostrils as he breathed quickly, while Cole was similar, except breathing a lot harder by the mouth that his breath was creating condensation on the camera.

"Jay, chill out. Kai isn't even freaking out. We're going to win this stage and this challenge."

"Yeah but we're down one less team member, remember?"

"True… but we got a thirty second head start, and Kai isn't going to forfeit – Cole and Nobu, on the other hand, most likely are."

"I guess you're right."

"I am right," Lloyd firmly stated as they then watched as the three coffins were finally placed in their holes, before bulldozers pushed piles of dirt into the hole, sufficiently burying the three students and their snakes.

But in the monitor, Jay could see Nobu freaking out even more. It was no secret that he was starting to hyperventilate. His breath was causing condensation to form on the camera, but everyone could see the snake near the youngster's head sliver over his face, tongue flickering at the rapid breaths.

"Get him out! Please!" One of Nobu's teammates cried out towards the headmaster.

Jay looked over to Lloyd's father and uncle, watching as the two men discussed in low voices and worried expressions washing over their faces. Then, with a firm nod from Master Wu in Borg's direction, the chain connected to Nobu's crate became taunt and the crane started to retract. The dirt that was on the ground was mostly flat, until inflating into a bump and finally, the crate breaking free like magma spilling from a volcano.

Nobu's teammates rushed over while Sensei Garmadon and Master Wu worked together on brushing the dirt from the locks. One of the young teammates swiftly got the key inserted into the single lock that kept the crate shut while snake wranglers came over.

"So… It's just up to Kai and Cole now," Lloyd murmured. "The whole school is going to be watching. We can't be slower than Zane, Griffin and Gene, okay?"

"Yeah…"

 **.:Nya:.**

Nya steadily exhaled, her breath echoing loudly within the wooden coffin. Her chest raised and fell deeply – inhaling for seven seconds and exhaling for four. Despite having her eyes opened, Nya couldn't see anything but a never-ending void of utter darkness, so, she closed them.

She didn't understand why, but having her eyes closed and focusing on her breathing allowed her to stay calm and allowed her to somewhat ignore the dozen snakes that slowly slivered over her body.

Heck… who was she kidding? She couldn't ignore the snakes. She could feel their scaly bodies on her body. Thankfully, there was none near her head, but majority were on her legs and on her stomach – a source of warmth for their cold-blooded bodies. So far, well taking a wild guess, six of the twelve snakes were docile and resting on her. Four were still slivering around while two were slowly constricting her right leg and her left wrist.

Nya honestly didn't mind snakes. She wasn't that scared of them. Of course, she was a little fearful of a venomous bite, but she knew Master Wu would never let venomous snakes get into close proximity of the students – so in no doubt, all these snakes were non-venomous. Still, snake bites would hurt but Nya also knew if she stayed calm and didn't appear as a threat to the snakes, they would have no reason to bite her… Although, the constriction was a concern.

Finally, the quiet muffled thuds became non-existent – meaning that she was finally buried.

" _Alright! Two teams remaining!"_

Borg's voice was faintly heard a couple minutes later. But hearing that there were two teams remaining surprised Nya. She knew only three were getting buried, but one already pulled out? She knew Cole would be too damn proud to go out too early so it would have to be the junior team.

 _Alright Nya. Don't fail Jay or Lloyd again. Stay calm for as long as possible until they can get you out._

" _Jay and Lloyd, you both have a thirty second head start! Your time start now!"_

After that, all Nya could hear was silence… well, other than the soft sounds the snakes made when moving or the sound of their tongues flickering at the air-

Nya froze, her body turning into stone as she felt a snake sliver underneath her shirt.

An involuntary whimper came up her throat as she could feel the cold yet slimy scales against the bare skin of her stomach. Yet, the snake didn't stop there. No, Nya could feel it slivering up higher and higher. Between the valley of her bounded breasts where no doubt it could feel the rapid beating of her heart.

Did it stop there? Of course not. What happened next was probably much worse than getting bitten by a venomous snake.

She could feel the snake's head navigating its way through the neck opening of her sweater before positioning itself just mere millimetres from her face, its tongue flickering in front of her. And it didn't even stop there. The rest of its body slivered out from her sweater, before coiling around her neck. It wasn't squeezing her neck, or constricting it, but Nya knew it would only be a matter of minutes before it did.

 _Jay. Lloyd. Please hurry up._

 **.:Jay:.**

It had been a solid four minutes and the sudden afternoon heat had sweat running like condensation off winter glass on Jay's face. What started as a glossy sheen became beaded, but not attractively like morning dew. The sweat then formed tiny rivers that flowed from his hair that stuck like second skin to his forehead, and then travelled down into his clothes.

It wasn't just the sweat that Jay was conscious of. His hands were getting increasingly sore as he tightly gripped the sweaty handle of the shovel. His breaths were erratic, each heave not getting enough oxygen in as he started to feel a little light-headed but that didn't stop him. No, he had to get Nya out. Stuff the competition. Stuff the fact that they may lose to Cole's team. THE SNAKE WAS FREAKING CHOKING NYA!

Jay had tried shouting at Master Wu and Sensei Garmadon to bring 'Kai' up, but Lloyd quickly shouted over him saying Kai wasn't panicking just yet nor did he look to be struggling.

Never had Jay wanted to punch his best friend so hard before.

"Jay, he's going to be fine-"

"The snake is around his neck!" Jay hissed between pants, digging with more ferocity.

The burning ache in his shoulders was overwhelming. If Jay was in any other situation, he would have called quits. However, it was the sheer determination to rescue Nya that made him push onwards – that made him push beyond his physical limits. Each shovelful was full and heaped. He tossed it over his shoulder with a ferocity to get it out of the five-foot hole he and Lloyd had already dug. Never did his speed or intensity decrease or falter for a second.

 _CLUNK!_

Jay cried out with relief when his shovel hit the coffin, but he quickly looked over his shoulder and to the monitor to discomfort and pain flickering on Nya's face. The snake was starting to constrict tighter!

"Hurry!" Jay yelled at Lloyd as he began to shovel even faster and harder.

"You get the dirt off the top, I'll work on the dirt around the lock!"

"Just do it!"

Jay then tossed his shovel out of the hole – narrowing missing the academy's physician and the snake wranglers as they now stood at the edge of the hole. Jay ignored them. He had to solely focus on getting Nya out. So, he quickly crouched down and used his arms in massive sweeping motions to brush all the dirt out of the way.

"I got the lock!" He heard his blond teammate exclaimed. Jay quickly looked over and watched as Lloyd swiftly insert a key (each group had the key for their representative's box) without any fumbles and unlocked it.

Without any hesitation or any seconds to wait, Jay rushed to open the coffin.

He didn't listen to the snake wranglers that told him to move out of the way. He didn't listen to Lloyd calling his name to follow him out of the hole. He just had to get Nya out.

The lid opened and immediately, Jay was horrified to see Nya's face was losing colour, the muscles in her face taunt as pain flashed through her eyes. The snake wranglers were faster than him though. They instantly reached in the remove the snake around Nya's neck and the other eleven.

Heck, Jay didn't even run in fear from the snakes – although he did wait until the snake wranglers got all the snakes away before rushing to Nya's side and helping her up. She was panting and wheezing a bit hard, her lungs desperately trying to get fresh air into her.

"Are you okay?" Jay panickily asked, his hands holding onto Nya's shoulders. "Are you hurt? Can you breathe fine? Did you even get bitten? Answer me!"

"Jay, calm down," she rasped, her amber eyes looking to him and they had an effect on his body that Jay never experienced before.

Just seeing those two, perfect amber orbs filled with relief was an instant antidote to the panic and fear that had seized Jay. The boy felt all the tension and stress leave his body, leaving it relaxed but also incredibly sore.

"I'm okay," Nya said, voice a little shaky but firm. Jay originally thought she said this to him, until he realised she was talking to the physician. But then she turned to him, her gaze soft. "I'm okay, Jay."

"Thank goodness," Jay breathed with relief before the hearing an onslaught of cheers.

Then it dawned on Jay.

"Wait… Am I the first one out?"

"You are… We did it!"

 ***chirp chirp***

 **Umm… Hi everyone. Long time no see?**

 **Sorry for my eight-month unplanned and unannounced hiatus. As mentioned in previous chapters, I have been struggling with anxiety and BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder) and while I'm not all in the clear, I have found ways to manage this better and start to get my life back onto the track it used to sail on! So here I am! And with the experience I have gone through, I should be able to write Nya's trauma and her PTSD better as well.**

 **Anyway, I hoped you all enjoyed this chapter! I'll see you all very soon! With probably the most anticipated chapter yet! Can you all guess what it is? ;)**


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